KICKSTARTER

Hello Everyone!!

Well, we have one week left in this Kickstarter campaign and despite our mistakes and various fall-backs, this campaign can only be considered a huge success. Thank you everyone for your support and understanding regarding our shipping fiasco. For our next project, we will find a way to ship our books around the world for much less.

We now have the international shipping numbers. We apologize for the delay in getting you these costs, but we wanted to be 100% sure of these numbers before providing them to you. Please consult the chart located in the link below to see the additional funds that you must add to your pledge amount to receive this book. These costs are NOT on top of the $18 that was already added for shipping, rather these costs reflect the TOTAL amount that must be added on top of $35 per book for shipping.

Please Consult This Table

Shipping outside of the US is significantly higher than we originally anticipated. If the book were under 4 lbs we would be able to ship it via First Class International Mail for much less, however, these books are well OVER 4 lbs each. As a means of saving money on shipping, we have provided the cost of shipping multiple books. 

For the purpose of calculating shipping costs, if you have pledged towards The Gravy Train reward, then the cost of shipping will be the SAME as if you had only ordered one book. Whether or not you receive a “free” t-shirt has no effect on the actual cost of shipping, however, if you would like to opt out of receiving the "free" t-shirt, you can deduct $3 from the total cost of shipping.

We appreciate your understanding about these shipping expenses. As much as we would like to provide these books to our friends abroad for $18 each, this is just not possible. We regret having to do this, but the cost of shipping outside of the US is so expensive that if we were required to pay the difference between the original $18 amount and the actual cost of shipping we would NOT be able to publish this book at all.

For those who will be cancelling their orders due to this announcement, we completely understand your position and thank you for your support up to this point. Our next campaign WILL provide a more reasonable means for non-US backers to own copies of the manga that we publish.

Feel free to direct any questions or concerns to my personal email address at andrew@thekansaiclub.com and I will respond as soon as possible.

Best,

Andrew

Hello again everyone!

Thank you for all of your questions, comments and concerns. Even negative comments are greatly appreciated as we would like to ensure that mistakes such as this one will never occur again in the future. Again, we would like to apologize to everyone for changing the cost of shipping in the middle of this Kickstarter campaign. We made a major rookie mistake by not properly accounting for all shipping costs from the onset, and as rookies, we accept all of the consequences. Even if this means losing a major portion of current and potential backers. As a result, we will be providing all backers with the option to opt out of receiving the t-shirt with their order for a discount off of shipping. Please see below for further details.

Can I Opt Out of Receiving a T-shirt for a discount off of Shipping?

Yes. We realize now that providing the incentive of free t-shirts and then charging the cost of shipping was a terrible idea. Everyone who purchased a book will now have the option to opt out of receiving a t-shirt with their order. As the shirts will be costing us $3 each, opting out of the t-shirt will give each backer a $3 discount off of the extra cost of shipping. This means that if you are a domestic backer (with a U.S. address) and you would like to opt-out of receiving the t-shirt, then the total amount that you should pledge is $37. If you WOULD like to receive the t-shirt, then your total amount pledged should be $40. You can simply change the amount pledged, and we will include a t-shirt if your pledge amount is $40 and we will not include a t-shirt if your pledge amount is $37.

If you are an international buyer and would like to opt out of receiving the t-shirt, you can also subtract $3 off of the extra cost of shipping. We will be providing a list of shipping costs to regions/countries in another update later this week.

NOTE: Whether backers from the UK choose to receive a t-shirt or opt out will have no effect on the cost of import duties to the UK. There will be no custom duties owed for these items as the value of all reward categories (with the exception of the biggest one) are valued at under £135. Similarly, the cost of VAT duties for the t-shirt itself will be under £0.40.

Why Not Lower the Quality of the Hardcover as a Means of Saving Money?

While there is a real possibility that we will create paperbacks or lessor quality hard cover editions for future projects, we would like for this book to be remain as high-quality as possible. We feel so strongly about this, that we were willing to potentially lose a lot of our backers in order to keep The Crater’s quality top-notch. We realize that many backers would rather pay less money for a lessor quality edition, however, that is not what we are offering with this project. It has been our dream with this first book to create an edition that properly gives one of Osamu Tezuka’s most interesting works the respect that it deserves.

If it was our intention to make a lot of money on this project we would be providing this exact book with an MSRP of $50 or $60. Essentially, $35 plus the cost of shipping is the rate that this book, under normal circumstances, would be sold to distributors for. Even the comic book and specialty book stores around the country that we are selling copies of this book to are paying $35 plus shipping per book.

I’m an International Buyer, Why Do You Hate Me So Much?

Believe us, we WISH that we had the ability to ship these books internationally for $18 a book. It boggles our minds that in many circumstances it is cheaper to ship goods TO the United States then FROM the United States. We fully appreciate the apprehension and concern of international backers. However, the cost of shipping internationally is entirely out of our control. $53 is a significant amount of money to spend on a book, but taking into account the quality of the book and the included extras, it seemed like a reasonable cost. $70 (an unsubstantiated estimate) on the other hand, is a LOT of money to spend on a book. Even if the book’s second-hand value goes over $70 in the future, it is still difficult to justify spending $70 from the onset. Sadly, we have no other option than to charge international buyers with the actual cost of shipping.

If it’s any consolation, the prices that we will provide for international shipping in our next update will include ONLY the cost of actual shipping. We will still be paying for packaging and labor costs out of our own pocket.

Will Changing the Pledge Amount Affect My Place in Line for the Animation Cel?

Changing your pledge amount will NOT affect your place in line to receive one of the Ambassador Magma animation cels. However, cancelling your pledge and the re-pledging WILL lose your place in line. An updated list has been added to the FAQ to reflect the current backers (as of 06/02) that will be receiving one of the animation cels with their orders. The list will probably change, as there will likely be backers among the first 500 who cancel their pledges before the end of the Kickstarter campaign.

Can I Opt Out of Receiving the Art Prints and Animation Cel?

All backers on the list to receive one of the Ambassador Magma animation cels are welcome to opt out of receiving them. However, opting out of receiving the animation cel will have no effect on the extra cost of shipping. This applies to backers from all countries. The animation cels weigh nothing and will be valued at $0 as they are legitimately being included free of charge. No one has the ability to opt out of receiving the 3 art prints that come with the book. These art prints come with all 2,000 copies of the book, regardless of whether they are sold through Kickstarter.

What is the Process for Adding Money to My Pledge Amount?

As project creators, we have ZERO access to the accounts of backers and do NOT have the ability to manually change the amount that a backer has pledged. All backers must manually change the total amount pledged themselves. Choose "Manage Your Pledge", keep the tier level you have selected and input the extra amount manually (thank you Nakano).

We will send out reminder notices to those backers that do not update their pledge amount prior to the end of this Kickstarter campaign. In the event that you have still not changed your pledge amount at the end of this campaign, we will give you the option to pay the additional fees after the campaign has closed. If the additional shipping fees are still not paid prior to us physically mailing the books, we will refund the total amount paid to respective backers. Under NO circumstances will backers be charged for books and other goods that they do not receive.

Will the Added Shipping Costs Mean More Secure Shipping Methods?

Yes. Part of the reason why we have been forced to charge more for shipping is that we have decided to use the services of a long-time and well-respected distributor (Rightstuf) to assist us with organizing, packaging, and mailing all of the goods in this campaign. This will end up costing us more than if we did it ourselves, but as a means of ensuring that all of the books and accompaniments arrive at their destinations without issue and in excellent shape, we felt that this was necessary. Similarly, all books will be mailed in boxes with added protection, NOT in cheap padded envelopes. As a fellow collector, I HATE when a book arrives in the mail with bent edges, especially when the book is a limited edition/collector’s item where the condition of the book directly correlates to the book's resale value.

Another update will be put up later this week with exact shipping costs per region for international buyers. These shipping costs will represent the amount that we must pay to ship to your region/country.

Please send me a message, comment or email regarding any information that I might have missed in this update and I will add it to our next update. I will also be responding to all comments, messages and emails that you have sent to me since the last update shortly. Thanks again everyone for your understanding and continual support!

Best,

Andrew