|
For kids, the days of mid-December always seem to inch by
like time spent in the dentist's chair. But for adults, these
days disappear faster than the cashews in a bowl of mixed nuts
- you turn around, and suddenly they're almost all gone.
That's kind of the mood of the week here at Looney Labs. With
Christmas only week or so away, the crunch is really on now,
both in terms of handling the sales at our on-line
game stores, and as regards our own holiday preparations.
Whereas we typically fill orders only once a week, we've lately
been needing to do it almost every day, what with both the volume
and the number of rush service requests we've been getting. So,
from here on in, we plan to fill orders every evening. But this
of course begs the question: How late can I order and still
expect to receive it in time for Christmas?
Our official line is "Order by
12/18 for 12/24 delivery" but that's not a firm deadline.
Assuming you choose not to spring for Fed
Ex, all orders we receive this week will be sent via Priority
Mail, whose 2-3 day estimate seems pretty reliable, even now,
at this the busiest time of the year. Ben, across the pond in
England, reports that our packages have been arriving in either
2 or 3 days, and when Number
12 called yesterday to suggest hand-carrying an order placed
by his father, he learned that dad had already received the package
- it had been delivered across town in just one day.
Our contact at the Post Office says a package mailed on the
20th should still be able to get across the country in time for
the holiday, and amazingly enough, Priority Mail will be delivered
on Christmas Day itself, so if you live on the east coast, you
might be able to order as late as the 22nd (or even the 23rd,
if you like gambling) and still slide a Fluxx
deck into someone's stocking.
 To further spur
our last minute shoppers on to action, we're running a special
(this week only) at Contagious
Dreams. If you buy $35 worth of games, you can get a free
copy of anything from the CD
Bargain page, including: The Big Cheese, Proton, Cosmic Wimpout
Dice, and the Origami Icehouse Kit. Just visit the Holiday
Special page to claim your freebie.
As regards availability, we haven't run out of anything yet,
but we certainly may before Christmas Day. If and when we do
run out of a specific item, we will immediately flag it on the
website, with a note that reflects the item's backordered status.
This means that everything in our catalog is available for immediate
delivery unless the description is marked with the phrase "Not
Available for Holiday Shipping."
Lastly, thanks to some coding help from Dorian (Thanks Dorian!)
we're about to be able to start sending out email notifications
whenever we fill a batch of orders. Once that system is in place
(hopefully by tomorrow) you will automatically be kept informed
about the status of your order. We'll send you an email as soon
as one of us takes your package to the Post Office.
Reviews of several of our games (Icehouse,
Fluxx,
and Aquarius)
have been posted at a cool new site called gamers.com.
They've got a rating system in place that allows anyone with
a browser to add their opinions to the rankings of the games,
and since a couple of our games are currently topping their "Top
Rated Games" lists, I'm guessing some of our Mad
Lab Rabbits have already been stuffing the ballot box. But
don' t let that stop you from volunteering your own opinions...
|