Weekly Store Update: 4 December

It truly is a unique experience, merging ideas inspired by video games like XCOM, Dark Souls, Monster Hunter and the jrpg genre with modern tabletop boardgames, like KDM or 7th Continent.

For your chance to win, simply go here to find out more information and enter. There's no cost, this is our way to give back to the community that supports us. We'll be drawing the winner on 17 December, so depending on how far away the winner lives from us there's a chance it could make it by Christmas!

WHEN TO MAIL YOUR HOLIDAY GIFTS SO THEY ARRIVE ON TIME

If you're planning on using Stone Valley Games for your holiday shopping or not, knowing when to ship your items to make it on time is always a hot topic. We use both USPS and UPS for our shipping methods, so we'll discuss both. Really, though, the key is to be as proactive as possible and get your items moving as soon as you can. 

For the USPS, their busiest timeline is December 10th - 18th, but really if you can get your item in the mail at least 10 days before Hanukkah (which starts December 18 this year - so that's shipping by the 8th to make the first night) or Christmas (you should ship on the 15th or earlier) you should be okay. As for the suggested guidelines, if you're shipping via USPS Ground (which is generally the cheapest method to ship heavier items - it's actually so slow we refuse to use it) December 14 is the cut-off. For lighter items (under 14 ounces) that ship via First Class, December 17th is the cut-off, and the fan favorite Priority Mail is December 19th. As you know, we also ship to our military and diplomatic posts overseas for free. If you'd like to send someone overseas a gift from us, USPS recommends having that shipped by December 9 to make it in time for Christmas. 

UPS has been under a heavy load ever since Black Friday, and it doesn't look like that's going to let up much for them. They recommend your UPS Ground packages are sent by December 14th, and 3-Day select by December 20th. 

There you are, forewarned is forearmed. As these days don't seem to be slowing down any it's important to not procrastinate too much. Of course... one can make vast improvements on procrastination...tomorrow. 

UPCOMING RELEASES

I've received a lot of questions about the highly anticipated Wingspan: Asia expansion. I just wanted to remind everyone that the Brick & Mortar release was Friday, 2 December but the online release is Friday, 9 December. This is the first time Stonemaier has split the release, and it's caused some confusion. So, our local customers get a whole week jump on it, I guess. An interesting choice from the publisher - to be sure.

Obsessing about Obsession? We should have another restock of the base game here in about a week or so. This game continues to move well. Honestly, there aren't many games out there that tie game mechanics to the theme itself quite like this. It's kind of remarkable.

We're anticipating our copies of the BX Advanced Bestiary, Volume 1 from Third Kingdom Games. It's a wonderful looking volume that complements the Old-School Essentials roleplaying game quite well. The books are at the printer right now. Those are US-based printers, so it could be within a month.

Talking about Old-School Essentials, we received an email from Exalted Funeral regarding the Old-School Essentials Fantasy RPG Box Sets. I'm not sure the timeline, but I have seen it arriving at other backers via Facebook, so our retail backer request is most likely at the tail-end of that wave. So, no timeline other than it's obviously in the works and we're excited about it!

Finally, and a bit on the "it's all just weird" scale, the re-releases of Escape the Dark Sector and Escape the Dark Castle. As you may have noticed, the expansions for both of those games have long since released, but it is only now we receive word that the base games will be replenished soon. It's generally frowned upon to only have expansions available for months and months without the base game...but who are we to judge? Just a sign of the continued transportation and Chinese manufacturing issues I suppose. In any case, those will be here soon! 

REPORT CARD AND STOREFRONT OPERATIONS

I underwent my four-week checkup with the surgeon last week as well. Wendy, my wonderful caretaker and partner in business as well as life by my side. I'll tell you what, seeing that gigantic piece of metal where the femur/hip joint used to be is something quite fantastical, but apparently real. Well, it feels real anyway. Bottom line though, I am healing well and am on the correct path to full recovery. 

So, with that good news we are still leaning toward a storefront opening on 19 December. I can honestly say that it should be okay by then, as it's a few weeks away. If anything changes I'll be sure to let you know. 

I'm not quite up to it yet, but soon I will be donning my elven shoes and cap to tiptoe through the books, games, and toys to see what items we will tap with the magical discount wand in preparation for the End of Year Sale. Again, we were positioning that from 28 - 31 December, though that is most likely going to change. After talking to our associates, we may shorten it to three days, 28 - 30 December, as there are a lot of activities taking place the 2nd of January and we must complete all orders by then. I think three days will be plenty, and will give us a few days to get everything done and sent out. We're looking forward to it!

 THE WRAP UP

Okay, enough news for this week! Below are the Restocks, New Items, and Preorders added to the shop last week. You can click on the item to learn more, and many of the products have review and gameplay videos so you can see the game in action. If you're visiting our page and you'd like to keep up with our giveaways, sales, new products, and articles like this one just create an account here. Once created you will be subscribed to our newsletter and become enrolled in our loyalty system, instantly earning 50 Stones that you can use on your very first order. A Stone? One Stone is equivalent to One Cent. That doesn't sound like much, but you earn 2 Stones for every dollar spent and 5 for each product review, so though it may seem small, those savings add up fast! Redeem your Stones upon checkout, and they can save you up to 10% off your cart total. Loyalty Matters!