Sultan Republic: Treasury Edition by Ellusionist

[Don Boyer]

i really like the box of the sultan treasury deck, how the inside is like a map to find another treasure maybe? 

After you wrote this, I spotted a photo of this deck with the deck box torn open to reveal the map inside.  It may very well be "part two" of the quest...


I'd recommend carefully opening a deck at the seams, so you can reglue it closed once you've scanned a copy of it.

[LauR]

Whilst the map does hint at being the next stage of the quest its quite weird that to accomplish it you would have to essentially destroy the box your deck came in.

[sr15]

so I sent an inquiry to the ellusionist support center about my $11.14 shipping costs and got this back:

When I place an order for treasury decks using your address I get .33 less then you paid, shipping prices fluctuate...

- Jennifer.

great customer service you got there, E. Don't even get a real answer or justification, just a snippy response. Guess I'll be getting my Sultan Republic decks from a 3rd party.

[Xntrix]

so I sent an inquiry to the ellusionist support center about my $11.14 shipping costs...

We believe this may have been a USPS error. It appears it's possible something happened at USPS that meant their shipping calculator was charging regular costs instead of our negotiated account costs, hence the 33c difference. Despite it not being an Ellusionist fault - you're our customer and you were inconvenienced, so we would like to do right by you.

The easiest way for us to fix this would be to issue you a coupon code - given it's 33c, I'm happy to authorise a $1 Unique Coupon for your next order, or you can request that we refund the 33c to your payment method via reverse charge. Simply reply to the email you received and we can take it from there.

Does the map hint at another Treasure? Well, the Sultan Republic led you to two treasures (for those who found them both) - could the map have something to do with the current treasure, or possible future treasures? Who knows? Where could this journey end? How many roads does a man need to cross? Will our heros be saved in the next episode... etc.

Kcaso. The designer of the Sultan Republic Deck was also the designer of the Sultan Treasury Deck (go figure). We clearly state the designer of the Republic deck was Mike Clarke, on our product page. Something tells me Mike would not be the type to call himself 'Che Cazzo' or any variation of such, so no. I don't think anyone here will be vouching for you anytime shortly.

Thanks for your feedback folks - helps us address these sorts of things quickly.

-Jake.

[sr15]

I'm not concerned about 33 cents, I'm concerned about the nearly 7 dollar difference between an order I placed on E last week and an order I placed today for a different company. These prices are for the same delivery method. USPS priority mail was quoted at nearly 12 dollars last week, while it was 4.50 on an order I placed today.

I just checked the shipping for 3 regular sultan republic decks, and it seems like it's been fixed for that since it's now 7 dollars for priority and 4 dollars for first class, but these weren't there when I made my order. I don't have the link for the treasury decks and I don't know if shipping for them is different, but there is obviously a large disparity between the shipping on my order for 3 decks and the shipping for 3 decks right now.

edit: It also doesn't explain why first class USPS shipping is available now but wasn't available for my order last friday.

edit2: for reference, I actually used UPS ground to ship these, because at the time it was cheaper than the quote for USPS priority mail.

[Don Boyer]

Whilst the map does hint at being the next stage of the quest its quite weird that to accomplish it you would have to essentially destroy the box your deck came in.

If you're careful, you don't have to destroy anything.  Pop it open at the glued spots carefully, then reglue it when you're done.  It's an open deck at that point anyway, it's not like you're hurting the resale value.

so I sent an inquiry to the ellusionist support center about my $11.14 shipping costs...

We believe this may have been a USPS error. It appears it's possible something happened at USPS that meant their shipping calculator was charging regular costs instead of our negotiated account costs, hence the 33c difference. Despite it not being an Ellusionist fault - you're our customer and you were inconvenienced, so we would like to do right by you.

The easiest way for us to fix this would be to issue you a coupon code - given it's 33c, I'm happy to authorise a $1 Unique Coupon for your next order, or you can request that we refund the 33c to your payment method via reverse charge. Simply reply to the email you received and we can take it from there.

Does the map hint at another Treasure? Well, the Sultan Republic led you to two treasures (for those who found them both) - could the map have something to do with the current treasure, or possible future treasures? Who knows? Where could this journey end? How many roads does a man need to cross? Will our heros be saved in the next episode... etc.

Kcaso. The designer of the Sultan Republic Deck was also the designer of the Sultan Treasury Deck (go figure). We clearly state the designer of the Republic deck was Mike Clarke, on our product page. Something tells me Mike would not be the type to call himself 'Che Cazzo' or any variation of such, so no. I don't think anyone here will be vouching for you anytime shortly.

Thanks for your feedback folks - helps us address these sorts of things quickly.

-Jake.

First of all, Jake, thanks for stopping by.


Second, thanks for the comments about Kcaso!  Sounds like he's just a kid trying to grab attention.


Now, to the real point...


I placed an order for three of these decks, but when I saw that the shipping was over $18 to a US PO Box address via USPS, I had to scale it back to only two, and it was still nearly twelve bucks for shipping them.  This seems pretty crazy when someone like me, who doesn't have a corporate account with USPS, can ship a Priority Mail Flat Rate Padded Envelope with as much as a dozen decks in it for only $5.15 with Delivery Confirmation when I purchase online.  Yes, I acknowledge that there's ancillary costs for staff, storage and bubble wrap, but those shipping figures seem really high.

[Evan]

@Xntrix, when i ordered, there were only 2 shipping options. One was $11.95 or so, and the other was in the $20's. Now if I want to order, it is as low as $5.40. Is it possible for me to get the difference refunded? (I made 2 orders)

[Don Boyer]

@Xntrix, when i ordered, there were only 2 shipping options. One was $11.95 or so, and the other was in the $20's. Now if I want to order, it is as low as $5.40. Is it possible for me to get the difference refunded? (I made 2 orders)

Two orders on a limited item?  That you're reselling on eBay for a huge profit?  When it's restricted to only three to a customer?  For shame... 

[Evan]

@Xntrix, when i ordered, there were only 2 shipping options. One was $11.95 or so, and the other was in the $20's. Now if I want to order, it is as low as $5.40. Is it possible for me to get the difference refunded? (I made 2 orders)

Two orders on a limited item?  That you're reselling on eBay for a huge profit?  When it's restricted to only three to a customer?  For shame... 

I don't understand why you say, "for a huge profit." I am selling it for $24.99 and I bought it for $10.... that's not "huge profit." And at the time that I purchased my decks, all it said was that it was limited to three per order, not per customer. Now it says per customer, but at the time of my order, it didn't.

[John B.]

The first one you sold you sold for like $40. that is a huge profit.

[sr15]

The first one you sold you sold for like $40. that is a huge profit.

the first three he sold at 40 bucks...not sure when evan became such a bullshitter

anyway, I'm not sure if Ellusionist is trying to avoid responsibility, but I've now gotten two responses from two different people that are essentially saying that we'll all have to eat the cost from their mistake (assuming it is a mistake and not just them trying to get extra money from inflated shipping costs). Obviously they don't have to do anything, but it would be great for their reputation if they fixed it in some way.

[anep21]

@Xntrix, when i ordered, there were only 2 shipping options. One was $11.95 or so, and the other was in the $20's. Now if I want to order, it is as low as $5.40. Is it possible for me to get the difference refunded? (I made 2 orders)

i don't think they supposed to refund it because you already agree on the shipping price when you pay for it. what if your buyer who paid $40 want a refund because now you sell it for $25? would you give the refund? i don't think so. same case here

[John B.]

@Xntrix, when i ordered, there were only 2 shipping options. One was $11.95 or so, and the other was in the $20's. Now if I want to order, it is as low as $5.40. Is it possible for me to get the difference refunded? (I made 2 orders)

i don't think they supposed to refund it because you already agree on the shipping price when you pay for it. what if your buyer who paid $40 want a refund because now you sell it for $25? would you give the refund? i don't think so. same case here

I will say this is different. Ellusionist has a set system for shipping. If the system messed up and over charged him, he should get a refund. With him selling it, its just him making it cheaper. Decided selling the 1st batch for 4x the price was good enough.

[Evan]

Yes, they sold for $40, but those people could have easily just bid and got it for much less because there was an auction option as well.

[Aaron]

E has every right to charge whatever the heck they want for shipping and you can choose to buy them or not, if they want to raise costs for  a big release like these with more orders being made (maybe for extra staff hours) they can.

Dont be babies about it you agree to pay it when you check out.

[sr15]

E has every right to charge whatever the heck they want for shipping and you can choose to buy them or not, if they want to raise costs for  a big release like these with more orders being made (maybe for extra staff hours) they can.

Dont be babies about it you agree to pay it when you check out.

you're free to think that, but in the business world, reputation means a lot. If you pull shitty practices like upcharging on shipping, then that reflects poorly on the company. Not worth buying from a company that does things like that

edit: kinda like what evan did. was it worth it in the short run? sure, he made a big profit. In the long run, though, his reputation here probably took a hit

edit 2: and for the record, I think it's more likely that it was actually a shipping glitch than purposely charging more shipping to hide costs. Either way, not fixing it still has the same effect.

[Don Boyer]

I don't understand why you say, "for a huge profit." I am selling it for $24.99 and I bought it for $10.... that's not "huge profit." And at the time that I purchased my decks, all it said was that it was limited to three per order, not per customer. Now it says per customer, but at the time of my order, it didn't.

Yes, they sold for $40, but those people could have easily just bid and got it for much less because there was an auction option as well.

Evan, if you don't see a return on investment of 150-300% over the course of less than a week as a huge profit, then you're head's so far up your ass you can't even smell your own crap anymore.

Is what you did illegal?  No.  Is it dishonorable and slimy?  Hell yes.

E has every right to charge whatever the heck they want for shipping and you can choose to buy them or not, if they want to raise costs for  a big release like these with more orders being made (maybe for extra staff hours) they can.

Dont be babies about it you agree to pay it when you check out.

If you ran a company and that was your version of "customer service", I don't think you'd be hanging on to your customers for very much longer...  It sounds a lot more like there was a glitch in the shipping calculations.  Raising an item's price is one thing, but hiding costs in "shipping and handling" is something completely different.  It's not like a rare deck requires some kind of special handling or shipping process than a regular one doesn't, so there's no good reason for the sudden change, especially when we know for a fact that it could be shipped for far, far less - and we don't even get a corporate volume discount; we're just using the retail prices for USPS's services.

[Evan]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

[Aaron]

E has every right to charge whatever the heck they want for shipping and you can choose to buy them or not, if they want to raise costs for  a big release like these with more orders being made (maybe for extra staff hours) they can.

Dont be babies about it you agree to pay it when you check out.

you're free to think that, but in the business world, reputation means a lot. If you pull shitty practices like upcharging on shipping, then that reflects poorly on the company. Not worth buying from a company that does things like that

edit: kinda like what evan did. was it worth it in the short run? sure, he made a big profit. In the long run, though, his reputation here probably took a hit

I agree it isnt a good thing and I dont think it is right but if thats what they want to do no one is entitled to a refund.

and in regards to evans thing, I really dont see anything wrong with it, it is no different than what many other ebayers do and the only difference is that we know who is selling the decks.

[sr15]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

"an item is worth more when I hide information from others"

[Evan]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

"an item is worth more when I hide information from others"

That's a fantastic quote and I thank you for sharing it, but I haven't done anything like that.

[sr15]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

"an item is worth more when I hide information from others"

That's a fantastic quote and I thank you for sharing it, but I haven't done anything like that.

you deleted my posts specifically from the facebook page where I informed others about the deck. what do you call that?

[Evan]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

"an item is worth more when I hide information from others"

That's a fantastic quote and I thank you for sharing it, but I haven't done anything like that.

you deleted my posts specifically from the facebook page where I informed others about the deck. what do you call that?

I deleted comments of people who were posting the link to the deck. I did not delete comments that were just telling people about the deck. I even told people that it was available on Ellusionist.com, but only to people who deciphered the Sultan deck.

[sr15]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

"an item is worth more when I hide information from others"

That's a fantastic quote and I thank you for sharing it, but I haven't done anything like that.

you deleted my posts specifically from the facebook page where I informed others about the deck. what do you call that?

I deleted comments of people who were posting the link to the deck. I did not delete comments that were just telling people about the deck. I even told people that it was available on Ellusionist.com, but only to people who deciphered the Sultan deck.

not once did I post the link to the deck, yet you deleted multiple comments made by me. you deleted posts informing about the deck when the link was revealed and easy to find, and then told people about the deck once Ellusionist changed the link because you had nothing to worry about then.

[Evan]

@Don, I believe I've even heard you say this: "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

"an item is worth more when I hide information from others"

That's a fantastic quote and I thank you for sharing it, but I haven't done anything like that.

you deleted my posts specifically from the facebook page where I informed others about the deck. what do you call that?

I deleted comments of people who were posting the link to the deck. I did not delete comments that were just telling people about the deck. I even told people that it was available on Ellusionist.com, but only to people who deciphered the Sultan deck.

not once did I post the link to the deck, yet you deleted multiple comments made by me. you deleted posts informing about the deck when the link was revealed and easy to find, and then told people about the deck once Ellusionist changed the link because you had nothing to worry about then.

That's completely false.