Covenant Updates

UPS, DHL, and the next phase of shipping.

We've just pushed a number of shipping changes live on our website. Here's what you need to know.

What we're changing.

Why we're making these changes.

We finally just have to make the call that our regional USPS system is not currently capable of delivering in the basic ways that we need them to. We've been banging our heads against this for years, but it has now reached an overwhelming confluence of missed deliveries, uncaring management, and unscanned packages—and it gets harder for us to cover for their misses as our shipping volume increases.

Meantime, UPS has been an incredibly reliable partner, always arriving on time for pickups and honoring their commitments. The service is also faster and easier for us to fix when things go wrong.

We also started vetting DHL Express for international shipments a few months ago in the face of UPS Worldwide being very expensive, and we found that their prices and service are leagues above any other option. We're talking 30%-50% lower costs than UPS and a more accurate "duties paid" calculation that gets packages right across the border. They're obviously the best option at this point.

What does this mean for customers?

The downside of this switch will be felt on lightweight packages shipped in the lower 48, particularly to states bordering Oklahoma. UPS Ground is $1-$5 more expensive on these shipments. Examples of where the disparity in rates is most apparent is with things like Marvel Champions Hero Packs, Earthborne Valley Expansions, and Here Be Monsters demo decks.

This will also be a downgrade for anyone who has an unreliable local UPS office or carrier, for the same reasons we had to drop USPS.

The upside is dramatically improved reliability and speed of delivery, particularly relevant when targeting release dates. The frustration of USPS packages sitting in a warehouse waiting to be scanned will be gone. Tracking will be more accurate. Damaged and lost shipments, or those headed to the wrong address, will be much easier to intercept and fix—basically, better post-shipment service.

Heavier shipments (typically multiple booster boxes) were already defaulting to UPS Ground as the lowest rate available, so for anyone placing those kinds of orders, service will be unchanged.

Perhaps biggest of all is a rather absurd improvement for international customers, particularly those in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The price drops and delivery speeds offered by DHL are remarkable—and there are additional international shipping improvements on the way in the next few months.

What about orders that have already been placed before this switch?

Any order already in the system will not be updated to these new conventions. If you have an order in your account that is listed as USPS or UPS International, that's how it will ship and your price will be unchanged. If you modify the order at all, it will flip to these new shipping conventions.

If you run into any difficulty here or need help, please just reach out.

How do you really feel?

When you're beholden to a third party who simply does not care, you have to find a different way. We've lived this story since we got into tabletop—as kids with local stores who didn't care about the games we loved, to local store owners with distributors who didn't care about the games we sold, to a regional USPS apparatus that doesn't care about the packages we send out every day or the people who committed their time and money to getting them.

We'll continue to evaluate what's available, and are having conversations about how we can bring USPS back for certain types of shipments in the future—particularly those that the smaller mail truck will accept. Meantime, we're pretty excited to not be calling USPS every day in an attempt to motivate them to pick up a bunch of packages, and we're looking forward to a better shipping experience all around.

-Steven