Its been a frustrating year from any number of standpoints, particularly as it relates to getting in new product that in many cases were announced months ago. Several manufacturers seem to be running into regular delays — oftentimes because of customs checks, manufacturing issues or other supply chain problems — which keeps affecting how and when we can expect to receive their items.

In the case of Panzerstahl, we were notified in August by one distributor that a cache of “previously made” product had been unearthed — presumably sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Asia or Europe — and that they could be expected before the start of the fourth quarter. Well, its now coming up on the end of November and we’re still sitting on our hands waiting to hear when they will be dispatched. We’ve told this distributor time and again that it does us no good if the product gets shipped to us at the end of December, when most online shopping has already wound down.

To make a long story short, we decided this morning to cancel our Panzerstahl order and have focused our attention on those lines that ARE actually expected sometime over the course of the next two weeks so they can make it to shoppers before Santa takes wing. Again, I have no idea why its taken this distributor so long to get in product that was made, packaged and sitting in inventory well over a decade ago looking for a nice new home. There’s only so many excuses I can listen to before I have to put on my big boy britches and call them out for not living up to their end of the bargain. Its one thing to get everyone’s hopes up — its another to drop the ball in spectacular fashion.

We apologize for not receiving said product and hope you understand that some things are simply beyond our abilities to properly address. Any orders we may have received to date for this line will naturally be cancelled and the listings will have a block in place to prevent any added orders from coming in.