Things seem to be going from bad to worse as far as getting in new merchandise is concerned, with many of the US west coast ports reporting huge bottlenecks that has prevented them from offloading cargo in a timely manner. In some instances, product has been waylaid for several months, sitting in limbo and awaiting their turn for release by customs officials. As a for instance, the Forces of Valor Sturmtiger, which was received in the Port of Los Angeles back in December, is just now receiving clearance and is currently expected to arrive at our distributor some time in mid April. Please bear this in mind when placing or awaiting delivery of your orders since the problem will likely last well into the summer and perhaps into the busy autumn months.
Needless to say, product we expected to be in earlier this year has been delayed by months, causing all sorts of issues for us as well as our customers. We bring this to everyone’s attention because in this business its extraordinarily important to have the patience of a saint if you expect to lay claim to many of the item’s listed on our future release schedule. Having said that, we do not, under any circumstances, accept “conditional orders” whereby the customer tells us that s/he needs to receive his or her order by a certain date otherwise they are cancelling their order. Friends, we are in the collectible business, which by its very definition means product seems to get completed then shipped to our door all according to their own schedule no matter how much we try to predict their actual dates to market. In this day and age, when people seem to think that virtually everything they order, from bleach to pet food, will arrive to them within 24-hours after order placement creates quite a bit of a problem for us and everyone involved in the process not to mention consternation on our part as we are forced to answer the same question over and over again. If you cannot accept this vexing situation, then we strongly advise you to pursue other interests and/or hobbies until such time as when the product does come out. Contacting us over and over again, asking us when an item is expected, does no one any good particularly when we are completely up front about the release schedule and how best to pay for product. Pre-paying for an item using a debit card, PayPal or AmazonPay also does not mean you move to the front of the line or the item in question will get to us any sooner. All it means is that we now have your payment in hand, rather than billing you when the item does materialize. We thank you for your understanding and look forward to quenching your diecast appetite now and well into the future.