JustinInMN
4 of a Kind
So I took delivery of my Free River Club: Edition 2020 ceramics on Friday.
I do want to give credit to @MegaTon44 for helping me through the process of working with Sun-fly when I had questions come up with the Free River Club: Edition 2020 set. So I thought I would share my timeline and experience with this in case anyone wants to make an order for themselves and I will answer any questions I can.
Doing business with Sun-Fly over e-mail works pretty well. My contact ended up being "Amy" who I assume is different than the famous "Susie" with whom other PCF's have worked. But I find her very helpful. The factory is in China is 14 hours ahead of Central Time, so would tend to get responses between 9pm and 5am my time. It's kind of fun to get these e-mails left overnight, but I always tried to respond if they hit before my bedtime.
1) Initial e-mail 2 Dec and 3 Dec
So the first attempt to reach out was to the info@sun-fly.com e-mail address I found on their website. Well turns out that's a dead address, don't do that. The next day I just submitted an inquiry to their contact form. The next day I received a response from "Amy." Start your inquiry via the form with confidence.
2) Contact with Amy 4 Dec
She confirms pricing at 0.60/pc for face-aligned Polyinno. She tells me these ship efficiently in cartons of 400 or 800. I send her the designs at this point and plan to decide on 1600, 2000, or 2400 pending my final analysis of the breakdown. Here are the shipping quotes she provides.
1600pcs: USD 296;
2000pcs: USD 320;
2400pcs: USD 340;
4000pcs: USD 480
They also make no mention about any minimum per denomination. I did only order 25 of the 100 denom.
3) Recieve final invoice, 5 Dec
After finalizing the breakdown, they finalize the invoice and request payment by international wire.
4) Wire sent from my bank, 9 Dec
Now I ended up having to make two trips to my credit union to set up the international wire. China is on the list of countries that are deemed "risky" recipients at my bank. But knowing others have come before me, I am not dissuaded. However, there were some additional details not provided on the invoice. My advice is to just take the time to go to your bank ahead of time and ask for the details they need to process an international wire and provide that to your sun-fly contact. It went smoother once I had definitive answers from sun-fly the second time.
5) First prototypes, 10 Dec
Sun-fly wastes no time and I have my first set of prototypes
Now the first prototypes expose a particular issue with the dye-sublimation process. Basically using dark colors at the edge of the face will bleed on the rolling edge. Doing aligned-edge design will hide this issue, but that wasn't my design. The second plan was to do a small solid ring of the base color around the face. I really like how this works and I am ready to green light the prototypes.
6) Prototypes approved, 12 Dec
After correcting the issues above, I make my approval
7) Chips complete and tracking number provider, 17 Dec
Well that was fast. Also I never tracked a package all the way from China before, it was kind of fun.
8) Chips arrive, 20 Dec
Though it's quite the source of anxiety for UPS to post the expected delivery date of Fr, 20 Dec and then not deliver until 7pm
. But all is well when I get to unboxing.
A little extra advice here. They cover everything in tape, these things are packed incredibly well, but make sure to be patient and have time to unpack. A lot of tape to cut.
I just put on "The Cincinnati Kid" (presently on Netflix) while unboxing and racking. Took almost the whole movie to finish. (Though I did stop for some pictures and stacking seven barrels comfortably on top of each other. The 8th barrel is the line where it falls, apparently.)
So bottom line, 17 days from first contact to delivery. Shockingly fast. Eight days from approving prototypes to delivery.
If you have other questions feel free to ask.
I do want to give credit to @MegaTon44 for helping me through the process of working with Sun-fly when I had questions come up with the Free River Club: Edition 2020 set. So I thought I would share my timeline and experience with this in case anyone wants to make an order for themselves and I will answer any questions I can.
Doing business with Sun-Fly over e-mail works pretty well. My contact ended up being "Amy" who I assume is different than the famous "Susie" with whom other PCF's have worked. But I find her very helpful. The factory is in China is 14 hours ahead of Central Time, so would tend to get responses between 9pm and 5am my time. It's kind of fun to get these e-mails left overnight, but I always tried to respond if they hit before my bedtime.
1) Initial e-mail 2 Dec and 3 Dec
So the first attempt to reach out was to the info@sun-fly.com e-mail address I found on their website. Well turns out that's a dead address, don't do that. The next day I just submitted an inquiry to their contact form. The next day I received a response from "Amy." Start your inquiry via the form with confidence.
2) Contact with Amy 4 Dec
She confirms pricing at 0.60/pc for face-aligned Polyinno. She tells me these ship efficiently in cartons of 400 or 800. I send her the designs at this point and plan to decide on 1600, 2000, or 2400 pending my final analysis of the breakdown. Here are the shipping quotes she provides.
1600pcs: USD 296;
2000pcs: USD 320;
2400pcs: USD 340;
4000pcs: USD 480
They also make no mention about any minimum per denomination. I did only order 25 of the 100 denom.
3) Recieve final invoice, 5 Dec
After finalizing the breakdown, they finalize the invoice and request payment by international wire.
4) Wire sent from my bank, 9 Dec
Now I ended up having to make two trips to my credit union to set up the international wire. China is on the list of countries that are deemed "risky" recipients at my bank. But knowing others have come before me, I am not dissuaded. However, there were some additional details not provided on the invoice. My advice is to just take the time to go to your bank ahead of time and ask for the details they need to process an international wire and provide that to your sun-fly contact. It went smoother once I had definitive answers from sun-fly the second time.
5) First prototypes, 10 Dec
Sun-fly wastes no time and I have my first set of prototypes
Now the first prototypes expose a particular issue with the dye-sublimation process. Basically using dark colors at the edge of the face will bleed on the rolling edge. Doing aligned-edge design will hide this issue, but that wasn't my design. The second plan was to do a small solid ring of the base color around the face. I really like how this works and I am ready to green light the prototypes.
6) Prototypes approved, 12 Dec
After correcting the issues above, I make my approval
7) Chips complete and tracking number provider, 17 Dec
Well that was fast. Also I never tracked a package all the way from China before, it was kind of fun.
8) Chips arrive, 20 Dec
Though it's quite the source of anxiety for UPS to post the expected delivery date of Fr, 20 Dec and then not deliver until 7pm
. But all is well when I get to unboxing.A little extra advice here. They cover everything in tape, these things are packed incredibly well, but make sure to be patient and have time to unpack. A lot of tape to cut
.I just put on "The Cincinnati Kid" (presently on Netflix) while unboxing and racking. Took almost the whole movie to finish
. (Though I did stop for some pictures and stacking seven barrels comfortably on top of each other. The 8th barrel is the line where it falls, apparently.)So bottom line, 17 days from first contact to delivery. Shockingly fast. Eight days from approving prototypes to delivery.
If you have other questions feel free to ask.
