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If you have a question about an order or our products, please check the
questions below to see if one applies. If you can't find what you are
looking for, please contact me at
sales@saber-scorpion.com
and I will do my best to answer your question. Thanks!
Questions about Ordering:
- How do I place an order and pay for it?
- How
are my items shipped and how much does it cost?
- When will my items arrive?
- Why did I receive extra decals with my order?
- I
seem to have gotten someone else's order. What now?
- An item was missing from my order. Will you send it?
- My item is
damaged. Will you replace it?
Questions about Decals:
- What exactly are your "decals" and how do they work?
- Do you sell any LEGO parts? If not, where can I get the pieces I need?
- I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. Can you help?
- Can you make a custom decal for me?
- Can you change the colors on an existing decal?
Questions about Books:
-
Do I have to buy your books here, or can I pick them up at a bookstore?
- Can I
download the books in digital format?
- Will you autograph my book?
A: Just add the items you want to your shopping cart (yes, you can add
items from multiple sections, such as a book with some decals) and then
click the VIEW CART / CHECKOUT button on the menu at the top of
your screen once you are done. Input your shipping and billing
information (please be SURE your shipping address and e-mail address are correct,
so that I can ship your order and contact you if there are any
problems!) and then choose your payment method. The methods I accept
are: - PayPal (you may use your credit card to pay with
PayPal)
- Cash (US Dollars ONLY)
- Check (US customers only, please)
- Money Order I will ship your order once I receive the
payment, usually within 1 to 3 days. If you pay electronically using
PayPal, your item will be shipped the fastest, since payment is instant
(unless you pay by e-Check, in which case I will wait for it to clear
before shipping your order). If you pay with one of the other methods, I
will have to wait until your payment has arrived before I ship the
order. If your paid by check, I may wait for your check to clear before
sending the order, particularly if it is a very large amount. No matter
which method you choose, please make sure that your payment is in United
States Dollars currency. Thanks!
A: All items are shipped through the United States Postal Service (USPS).
If you order a book and live in the United States, you should receive an
e-mail with tracking information once your item is shipped. However, no
tracking is available for decal-only orders or orders outside the US.
Shipping for decal orders is FREE. All other shipping rates are
listed alongside the items. Currently, I opt for the least expensive
shipping method available. If you need faster shipping, please e-mail me
and hopefully we can work something out in time.
A: That depends upon where you live and what payment method you chose.
All orders are shipped within 1 to 3 days after I receive payment. If
you pay electronically using PayPal, your item will be shipped the
fastest, since payment is instant (unless you pay by e-Check, in which
case I will wait for it to clear before shipping your order). If you pay
with one of the other methods, I will have to wait until your payment
has arrived before I ship the order. This could take three or more days,
or even a week if you live outside the US. If your paid by check, I may
wait for your check to clear before sending the order, particularly if
it is a very large amount. If you live in the United
States, your order should take about 3-4 days to arrive after I ship it,
but please allow at least a week before e-mailing me. If you live
outside the US, it may take a week or more. Please be patient. If you
think it has been too long since you placed your order and you should
have already received it, please e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.
A: I sometimes include free extra decals or advertising material (such
as a bookmark) with larger orders. This was probably not a mistake -
keep them, and enjoy! ;-)
A: This is a rare occurrence, but sometimes I do get things mixed up. If
you received the wrong order, please e-mail me immediately. I will ask
you to send back the items you received, and I'll ship out the correct
ones as soon as possible.
A: Sometimes I do accidentally leave out decals from large orders. If
this has happened to you, just e-mail me, and I will send the missing
item(s) as soon as possible.
A: If an item you ordered arrived in poor condition, please e-mail me
within three weeks after receiving the item (any longer than that, and I
will have to assume it was not actually damaged when it arrived) and I
will send you a free replacement. If the item was anything other than a
decal (such as a book or poster), I will ask you to return the damaged
item before I send the replacement.
For decals you may
have damaged during application or use, I will still send a free
replacement, but only in addition to a new order. Simply place a new
order, include a list of the damaged decals in the Comments section (no
more than three at a time), and then pay for the order. The replacements
for the damaged decals will be included free of charge.
A:
To put it simply, they are stickers. I designed all of them myself using
the computer, and I print them out onto sheets of label paper and send
them to you. When you get them, you simply cut them out along the edges (try to
use a very small pair of scissors), carefully peel them off of the
backing (you may want to practice on the blank white edges before trying
on the decals themselves), and apply them to your minifigs. It's that simple! Read on for
more details.
All of the decals here were drawn by me (Justin "Saber-Scorpion" Stebbins)
in a program called CorelDRAW 12 (for more info see
www.corel.com). This is a vector
art program which uses lines and shapes to create drawings instead of using
pixels, like Adobe Photoshop. Vector art programs are very useful for
printing, because they can be reshaped, recolored, and resized with little
effort and no loss of quality. You can zoom all the way in to a vector art
image and everything will still look sharp and clear. For an example, first
try zooming into an image with Adobe Photoshop. Everything looks like a
bunch of squares (pixels). Now, try zooming into my Flash menu to the left
of this page. Just right-click it and hit "zoom." See? No loss
of quality! Still sharp!
That's because Flash uses vector art. And so do I. This insures that my
printouts will always be of the highest quality. If you were, for example,
to try to copy one of my example images and print it yourself, it would never print
as well as my original vector art file. All of the decals in my shop are printed on white label sheets from
www.avery.com. Here
are some of the advantages (+) and disadvantages (-) to the kind of
paper I use, as compared to other alternatives (particularly
"water-slide" decals):
+ Far easier to apply than water-slide decals, which require
soaking in a solution and carefully flattening onto the minifig when
wet). With mine, you just cut 'em out,
peel 'em off, and stick 'em on!
+ Image is often clearer, sharper, and more brightly-colored than
with water-slide or other transparent decals.
+ Since the decals are opaque, there is no need to remove the original
design from your LEGO torso using brass polish, like with transparent
decals.
+ This means that the decal can be easily removed (just peel it off and
scrape off the residue with your thumb) and the original design will
still be intact underneath!
- Can wear out if played with too much. Still, just be careful
with them and keep them away from moisture, and they should be fine.
- Sometimes the colors will not match official LEGO colors exactly,
although I try my best.
- The paper is rather thick, so the edges may sometimes be
visible, and it can be hard to fit helmets onto heads with face decals
(be sure to cut the face decal as small as possible).
I have been using this type of decal paper for years, and I still have no desire to
change.
A: No, I do not sell any actual LEGO parts - just decals and only decals.
If/when I make special offers that include the actual LEGO parts, I will
make it very clear that the parts are included. Otherwise, you will have to
supply the parts yourself. Personally, my entire LEGO collection has been
amassed the simple way: by buying LEGO sets. Ever since I was about 5 years
old, I have been continuously buying LEGO sets as they are released. This is
one way to get the parts you need: by buying sets in stores. However, they
may not always have the parts you are looking for available in the current
sets at this time. For these older/rarer parts, you will have to search
online. Here are some good places to look:
http://shop.lego.com - The official
LEGO Shop@Home website. Here you can buy just about all the LEGO sets you
find in stores, plus many exclusives and extras! Look for minifig accessory
kits if you can find them. Also, LEGO now sells many parts individually and
in bulk, allowing users to design their own sets with a computer program
through the LEGO Factory page. However, the part selection is pretty
limited, especially in the area of minifigs.
http://www.peeron.com - If you want
to know what parts are available in what colors and in which sets, check out
Peeron, the online LEGO part/set database! You can search for any LEGO set,
look at the parts, and see what colors of each are available in each set.
Then you can buy the sets you need from another site. It's a good way to
find what part names to search for on Bricklink.com (below).
http://www.bricklink.com - The
ultimate LEGO buying source online. If you can't find it at LEGO's official
site, try Bricklink. Bricklink works a little bit like eBay (only without
the bidding), since you are actually buying from individual sellers who own
the LEGO parts. So you have to find a seller that looks good to you. Still,
you can buy just about any LEGO part and/or set in existence here, if you
know what to look for. TIP: The search engine on Bricklink can be very
difficult to use, so you may want to find the name of the piece your are
looking for on www.peeron.com (above)
first. If you still have trouble, e-mail me and I'll try to help.
http://www.brickforge.com and
http://www.brickarms.com - These are
two sites that sell custom-made, unofficial, LEGO-compatible minifig
accessories, including weapons and armor. Brickforge sells mostly medieval
and fantasy items, while Brickarms sells mostly modern and sci-fi weaponry. Both are
very high-quality and professional. If you place an order at one of these,
be sure to tell them that Saber-Scorpion sent you!
A: If you can't find a particular decal I have made, e-mail me and tell me
what you're looking for. I'll try to point you in the right direction.
If a package does not suit your needs, and you would like me to offer
something different, e-mail me and let me know, and I'll see what I can do.
I may be able to make a new package more along the lines of what you're
looking for, but not always (I will not, for example, sell every item
individually).
If you are looking for something I have not already made and do not
currently offer, please see the next question.
A: I may be able to. Please note, however, that:
- I cannot accept all custom job requests.
- If I do accept, it will take longer than simply ordering an existing
decal.
- I will charge extra for having to make the decal from scratch.
- I reserve the right to sell the decal to other customers at my regular
prices later.
If these conditions are fine with you, then e-mail away! Let me know what
you want, and hopefully we can work something out. If all you want is
something very simple (like a color change), please see the next question.
A: Want me to make those Nova Refuge soldiers in dark green camouflage mode,
or offer that yellow-skinned character in peach flesh tone? Sure, I can do
that! Simple changes to existing decals, such as color changes, are FREE.
Just include a CLEAR, DETAILED list of the changes you want in the Comments
section of your order. If you are not clear and detailed, I will either
e-mail you for clarification (thus delaying your order) or send my best
guess at what you mean. If you request too many changes and it takes too
much work, I may ask you to send additional payment in order to complete the
changes.
A: Currently, this website is the ONLY place you can order my books,
although I hope that will change in the future. Still, that could be a
long time from now, so best go ahead order them here. ;-)
A: At the moment, no, the books are only available in regular, paperback
novel format. I may offer digital novels in the future, but again, it
could be a while before that is available.
A: Sure! For now, I'll autograph any book you order from my site free of
charge. Just include a request for an autographed copy in the Comments
section of your order, along with what you'd like the dedication to be
(such as "For Daniel", etc.). Who knows, maybe my sloppy signature will
be worth something, to someone, someday...? It's nice to hope.
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