Looking Back to 2021

Hello puzzle lovers!

There is only less than a month left this year.
We are working on new puzzles, but they are hard to be completed this year, so our next puzzles will be released in 2022. We will notify you when they are ready by sending a newsletter.

So, as usual, let's look back on what we released in 2021.
In total, we have produced 10 puzzles this year.

In March, we released these three puzzles. Most of our puzzles are difficult to solve, but I think Bumpy Pentominoes is the one that can be played easily and enjoyed by everyone for a challenge.

6BB Oddly Extended Version #01
Floating Framed Burr
Bumpy Pentominoes

In May, we released these two puzzles.

6 Board Burr 5x8 #02
Beauy Kruse

In July, we released a sequential discovery puzzle. This puzzle looks like an ordinary cube, but it contains some tools and some mechanism that trick you.

Sequential Discovery Cubed Box

In October, we released these four puzzles. Grooved 6 Board Burrs are a type of puzzle that Juno has been working on and this time, it finally reached No.5 and No.6. I am not sure whether he is going to make No.7. Probably, he is.

Grooved 6 Board Burr #5
Grooved 6 Board Burr #6
Bubinburr
Plumply 12

We will make enjoyable puzzles that can make puzzle lovers happy next year too.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season from Juno and Yukari.

21st Auction Results

We held an eBay auction and it ended on 2nd October. This time, we put up 4 kinds of puzzles for a total of 7 puzzles. The winning bids are as follows:

• Grooved 6 Board Burr #5 (2nd grade 1 of 2) AUD $88.00
• Grooved 6 Board Burr #5 (2nd grade 2 of 2) AUD $97.00
• Grooved 6 Board Burr #6 (2nd grade) AUD $91.00
• Bubinburr (2nd grade) AUD 81.00
• Grooved 6 Board Burr #6 (Pine version) AUD $65.00
• Level 5 Board Burr (2 of 2) AUD $73.00
• Level 5 Board Burr (1 of 2) AUD $94.00

The total sales amount was AUD $589.00 and as we promised, we have donated about half of the total sales amount. It was AUD $294.50, so we rounded it up and donated AUD $300.00 to AWLQ on Tuesday. Here is the receipt.

Actually, there has been technical issues with our eBay account that prevented us from receiving payment via eBay, but anyway, it was a good excuse to meet fluffy friends at the animal shelter, so we headed to the nearest AWLQ.

There were only three cats. They seemed to be having too much time on their paws and we were welcomed.

I heard many people adopted dogs and cats after lockdown started. Therefore, there weren't many dogs and cats at the facility. I hope those people who adopted pets during the lockdown won't abandon their pets because the lockdown is now over.

Yukari

20th Auction Results, 2nd Chance to Purchase SDCB

Hello puzzle lovers!

20th auction results

We held an eBay auction and it ended on 1st August successfully. This time, we had put 2 second grade Sequential Discovery Cubed Box puzzles. The sales results are as follows:

Sequential Discovery Cubed Box (2nd grade 1 of 2) AUD $1,125.00

Sequential Discovery Cubed Box (2nd grade 2 of 2) AUD $1,126.00

As we promised, we have donated half of the total sales amount AUD $1,130.00 to Volunteering Queensland. Here is the receipt.

The 2nd chance to purchase Sequential Discovery Cubed Box

As we have announced before, we kept about ten SDCB puzzles that were not put on our web shop. We are going to sell the puzzles to the following people, so if you think one or more of the following conditions apply to you and you would like to purchase one at the regular price (AUD $480.00), please contact us until Sunday 15th August.

1. You are an invitee of the IPP.
2. You have met ant talked with Juno in person.
3. You currently own more than 20 Pluredro products.

The person who is chosen to have an offer would receive an email from us but please understand that it might take another month or more before you hear from us since we are waiting for all the initially sold 140 puzzles safely reach our customers. We have already received lots of enquiry about the kept SDCB puzzles and we may not be able to reply to those who cannot purchase.

Please do not miss out this opportunity!

SDCB release outcome and auction

We have released 140 Sequential Discovery Cubed Box puzzles on 18th July and the puzzle was sold out in a very short time. The image below is the screenshot of the admin page on our shop that is captured about 2 minutes after the release of the puzzle.

As you can see, 118 customers have already finished purchasing. 139 visitors are about to check out and 152 visitors put puzzle(s) in their cart. Many of them must have experienced that the puzzle they put in their cart disappeared because only person who finished the entire transaction process before stock ran out can purchase products. Maximum page views reached 1,215 and it was our site record.

The following table shows how many customers completed their orders using what payment methods every minute after the release.

Overall, PayPal was the preferred payment method, but those who used credit cards were able to complete their transactions more quickly. Of the ten fastest customers, all but one used a credit card. If the 140 puzzles had been released in two batches, one for 70 puzzles and one for 70 puzzles, those who could not complete the purchase procedure within two minutes might not have had a chance at all. I assume completing the purchase process in less than a minute requires a certain amount of IT skills and knowledge. Many of our fastest customers may have logged into our web shop beforehand and had their customers' details and payment details saved in their browser. Some of them may be using browser automation tools to reduce the time needed to make a purchase.

The following table shows the addresses of our customers, sorted by country.

Amazingly, more than 60% of the puzzles were purchased by customers who live in the United States. We once experimented a later release time in our time zone, but the portion of the US customers was rather increased at the time. Maybe we just have more customers in the US.

Among 140, 39 customers are new to our website, and we think that it is quite a large portion considering the high retail price of the puzzle.

We have cancelled a few orders because of the following reasons:

• Purchases made by the same household members.
• Purchases made using false identities.

We believe that it is not reasonable to sell more than one puzzle to people in the same household, as many visitors will miss out on the chance to buy, so we will stick to this policy whenever we release a puzzle that might attract strong attention. All cancelled puzzles were already allocated to customers who missed their chance.

As we have mentioned on our newsletter before, two second grade Sequential Discovery Cubed Box puzzles were put up on auction. A half of the sales of the auction puzzles will be donated to a volunteer organization that is relatively close to our location to help people who are in need. Bidding on the auctions by the customers who already purchased the regular version of the puzzle is also welcome since our intention this time is to raise some money for charity.

Juno

How to release new puzzles

On my last blog entry, I wrote about predatory resellers and after that, we received lots of opinions and suggestions about the matter. Thank you for your ideas, thoughts and consideration.

Almost all the puzzlers who sent us do not welcome predatory resellers and flippers. Only a few people told us that resellers can increase their chance to acquire rare puzzles. Though they are also not happy to pay for a puzzle two or three times more than the original price. People who can pay two or three times more for a puzzle is limited as well.

Now, I have been thinking of releasing the next SD puzzles in the following way. For example, let's say I have 150 puzzle products to sell at the regular price of $500.

1. Sell the first 10 puzzles at the price of $750, meaning each buyer pays an extra 50% to purchase the very same puzzle.
2. Sell the next 70 puzzles at the price of $500 twelve hours later.
3. Sell the next 65 puzzles at the price of $500 another twelve hours later.
4. The last five puzzles will be kept and sold depending on situation.

Maybe, we could put one of the last five puzzles up for auction when we notice someone is trying to sell the same puzzle on an auction. Thus, the winning bid will be decreased, the auction winners will pay less and the flipper gains less.

We can also contact a person who is willing to pay an extra 50% for a puzzle. If the person who doesn't mind paying two or three times more than the regular price at an auction, an extra 50% is a bargain. The person who accepts our offer doesn't have to join an auction and it might help to reduce the winning bids on future auctions. I can also choose who should get one of the last five puzzles. We often find that the released puzzles at popular web shops are sold out within minutes and people who don't have good reflexes or IT skill may lose the chance all the time. Giving an opportunity to those people wouldn't be unfair.

To hold a competing auction to discourage the resellers, the best way will be to set up an auction by ourselves adding an app to our server. It will cost an additional USD $360 annually, but the cost will be covered by extra income. Or use eBay auction like we occasionally do. Although we will lose an extra 10% as the eBay fee, it will be covered as well.

We, again, appreciate your thoughts about the above plan. If the idea is supported by the majority of our customers, I will take this option. If not, we will release the next puzzle splitting the total amount into two batches.

I should mention about the ideas that were sent from several customers. Putting serial numbers may discourage the intention to resell the puzzle. It also helps to track who is selling the puzzle but I will make lots of mistakes by doing so. Why I made the branding iron is I don't have confidence with hand writing. I might spell Juno as Jumo. There is a good chances I would write the same serial number twice. Adding non essential information to the puzzle is also not to my taste.

I totally agree that determining the predatory reseller is difficult and misjudging can cause a problem. I still think that a sort of three strike rule is plausible. If three or more people tell us and pinpoint who is the predatory reseller, the reseller might be eliminated from purchasing our puzzle products.

At last, there is good chance that we can release the next SD puzzle this July. It was a long journey and a bit more to go.

Juno

Puzzle reselling

A question.

Do you want me to refuse selling our puzzle products to the obvious resellers?

One of the most common emails that we receive is about our limited productivity. Unfortunately, the time is limited and we can not increase our productivity dramatically. Many of our customers are not happy to see our products put on auction immediately after they are sold out at our official web shop, and the winning bid of the auction sometimes ends up two or three times higher than our retail price. I also don't like the activity to purchase our puzzles just for reselling purposes.

We often receive suggestions about a membership option on our web shop but there are several reasons that I don't want to take that option.

• It increases our work load thus we have less time to produce puzzles.
• There are more chances to make mistakes taking that option, like over selling, miscalculation for the shipping cost and so on.
• Since our productivity is limited, if the demands on the puzzle are larger than our stock level, we have to chose who can purchase the puzzle. A lottery option increases our work load as well.
• The resellers may pay for the membership and just add the cost for the reselling value. A membership option won't stop purchase for reselling.
• If we have only 20 puzzles and sell all of them to the members, we can not appeal to new customers.

So, how about the idea to refuse selling our puzzles to the resellers? If many of our customers prefer the option, I might take that when we start selling our new SD puzzle boxes. Please tell us your opinion through the contact form. If you like the option, please also tell us your idea in which way it can fairly be executed. It is disastrous to misjudge the genuine customer as a reseller, so it has to be applied carefully.

I'm aware that sometimes puzzle collectors have to part with their collection. Selling puzzles that are not to their taste is also understandable but buying whichever puzzles that can attract many collectors and then make a profit reselling them is a no no. Although we try to maintain our retail price as reasonably low as possible, if the majority of the products are taken by resellers and can not directly reach our genuine customers, it is very disappointing.

Quick update.
Our new SD puzzle is coming to shape and is close to the finishing stage. We will probably have around 150 puzzles to sell and that means an additional 5-minute work for each puzzle and up to a day's work for all. I hope I can tell you good news very soon.

Juno

Two kinds of new burr puzzles

We have started selling our new puzzles, Beauy Kruse, and 6 Board Burr 5x8 #02 (2 colors - American Cherry and Amoora and 3 colors - American Cherry, Sassafras, and Amoora). Sassafras has a bit of a greenish colour but it does not look very different to the colour of American Cherry, especially on the photo images.

This time we had no second-grade puzzles, and we did not hold an auction.

I know there are lots of puzzle lovers who are waiting for a sequential discovery puzzle. The next puzzle after these burr puzzles will probably be a sequential discovery puzzle box. We have been working hard to complete the puzzle. Please wait for news of the release.

Yukari

19th Auction Results and coming new puzzles

We held an eBay auction and it ended on 13th March.
This time, we had put 2 kinds, a total of puzzles of 5 puzzles.

6BB Oddly Extended Version #01 (2nd grade) x3
6BB Oddly Extended Version #01 (Pine test version) x1
Floating Framed Burr (2nd grade) x1
Total sold amount: AUD $322.24
Donated amount: AUD $165.00

The total sales amount was AUD $322.24 and as we promised, we donated about half of the total sales amount AUD $165.00 to BirdLife Australia on Sunday.
Here is the receipt (right bottom).

The product version of 6BB OEV #01 was sold out in a day which means there are no stock of our original plywood puzzles. Well, don't worry. Juno thought something like this might happen, he has made lots of original plywood. He has already started making the next burr puzzles.

If you are a sequential discovery puzzle lover, probably you would like to know when you will be able to get the next one. We are still working on it and cannot tell when they will be available. We will send our newsletter as soon as they are ready for sale. If you haven't registered for our newsletter, please join!

Yukari

19th puzzle auction and 3 new puzzles

We have put five puzzles, 6BB OEV #01 (2nd grade and test version), and 2nd grade Floating Framed Burr up for auction on eBay! A half of the sales of the puzzle will be donated to BirdLife Australia to save a future for our native birds in Australia.

We are starting to sell the new puzzles on 13th March at 07:00 Brisbane time.

6BB Oddly Extended Version #01 is a level 19-11-4-2 board burr made of our original plywood.

Bumpy Pentominoes is one of Juno's old design and the puzzle is also recommended to small kids.

Floating Framed Burr is a relatively easy puzzle among our products but it still requires tricky 16 moves to remove the first piece from the assembled shape.

We look forward to your participation in the auction.

Yukari