Shipping FAQs &
Country Specific Shipping Information

All orders are shipped through USPS with shipping rates and speeds based off of the total weight of the package. At this time we only offer standard shipping speeds.

All orders will include tracking information, which will be emailed out to you when the shipping label for your package has been printed.

Fragile orders will be marked with at least one Fragile sticker, more stickers will be applied if the package is large.

Orders with items that should not be bent will have both Fragile stickers and a note written in thick marker advising to not bend the package, with the same note written on multiple sides of the package if the package is large.

Orders are typically shipped out within 1-3 business days (meaning days of the week excluding weekends and holidays). Some prints in the shop may need to be made before they are ready to ship, and so for orders including prints we ask that you allow us 1-5 business days to ship out your order.

My assistant, Jon, handles shipping and usually ships out orders every Tuesday and Thursday/Friday. On weeks when we have to travel for work, Jon may also ship out orders on Wednesday.

In some situations, we might be traveling for multiple weeks, in which case a note will be included at the top of all the pages throughout the website warning that there will be shipping delays for any orders placed during a specified date range. This “Away Note” may be considered to be a popup by some Adblocking software, so always please double check Shows to see what dates we might be traveling on.

If you've placed an order on a day when Jon ships orders out, it's possible that your will be packed and shipped on the same day, so please let us know immediately if something needs to be updated!

If additional time is needed to complete your order, Jon or I will make sure to contact you.

If you have placed more than one order, and those orders are being shipped out to the same address, our shipping software, Shipstation, will often flag those orders so that my assistant, Jon, knows to combine them. You are still more than welcome to contact us just to ensure that multiple orders can still be shipping out together!

If you were charged shipping costs for those orders, any overpayment will be refunded back to you. If you do not receive a refund it is either because the total shipping cost of the combined order was equal to or greater than the shipping paid. If the combination of multiple orders causes the shipping cost to go up drastically, the order will be split back up into its original parts and shipped separately.

If you would prefer that orders placed separately remain separated for whatever reason, please let us know and Jon will keep them separate.

This usually only affects orders being shipped outside of the US, but I have seen if affect orders going to PO Boxes, and to some US territories.

Please make sure that you have included both a given name and a surname (first and last names). Both given and surnames cannot be shorter than 2 alphabetical characters. Single letter initials for either of these names cause an error with my shipping software when I attempt to print shipping labels.

Please double check your shipping address to make sure it is correct and current.

Please make sure to write out the full names of streets, cities/towns, provinces, and other details. If the order is being shipped to an address that includes a suite, unit, apartment, or other secondary identifier, please make sure to specify which type it is, and do not omit this information all together. Even if the local postal worker is familiar with the recipient’s name or business and knows which unit/apartment to drop off the package with, USPS as a whole does not and requires me to include those details before validating the shipping address.

If you are preparing to move, please consider having the order shipped to your new address, or feel free to request that your order be placed on hold until you're prepared to receive packages at your new address.

If an order is returned due to an incorrect/invalid address you will need to pay shipping before we send the order out again. If you would prefer a refund instead of a second attempt at shipping the order, the cost of shipping will be withheld from the refund, even in instances where there was no shipping cost.

Please make sure that your shipping address is in Latin* characters if your country's alphabet does not typically use Latin characters. All shipping labels are generated through a shipping software that can only generate those labels using Latin characters. Accent marks and certain punctuation are usually acceptable.

Any orders received that are not written out in Latin characters will be delayed as my assistant Jon will need to reach out to you and confirm the correct way to convert the shipping address into Latin characters.

*Dear English speaking customers, this is not a request for your address to be written in a dead language. The English language is written in Latin characters.

All orders being shipped to the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, The United Kingdom & Northern Ireland will be automatically screened by an address validation tool that our shipping software, Shipstation, uses to make sure that shipping addresses are correct. If the address cannot be validated, Shipstation will not generate a shipping label for the order.

This tool is based on USPS’s address database, and can be picky about things such as punctuation, abbreviation, and format. Because USPS is the provider of the database that this tool runs off of, it relies on USPS to be up to date, so if you are shipping to an address for a newly built house, or if your country has recently changed the name(s) of its provinces, or any other major change, the address validation tool may incorrectly flag the shipping address as invalid.

Please keep an eye out for any emails from my assistant Jon asking to confirm the provided shipping address. He will work with you to make whatever corrections/changes are needed to ensure that your order can be shipped.

If anything needs to be changed about your order, either something detailed in the above sections or if you'd like to add/remove something from your order, message us immediately to have it corrected. Once a tracking number has been provided, changes can no longer be made.

There will be several points in the shipping process where you might see the tracking details stop, either for a short period or forever. I'll list out a few of the more common situations where you can expect to see this.

• When the package has been marked as prepared to leave the US

- This delay is often caused by an influx of packages, and means the package is in a queue

- Delay will last until the package has moved through the queue

• When the package has left the US

- Before they officially leave, packages have to first go through US customs

- Likewise, packages will also need to be processed into that country's customs agency.

- Delays can last between a few days to 2 weeks, depending on each country's customs processing times

- If delays last longer, you will need to contact your customs agency about the package

- If customs has no record of receiving the package, please let us know!

• When the package has arrived in your country

- USPS may stop tracking your package, but the same tracking number should be usable with the local postal service

- Many countries do not provide tracking for imports under a certain weight or shipping class

- In situations like this, the package will arrive with no further tracking updates

- Even if tracking is not supported, some countries will continue to track packages internally

- If your package has not arrived within 2 weeks of reaching your country please let us know!

Firstly, I agree. To try and offset some of these costs, I offer a discounted shipping cost. This cost is determined by the cost I pay to ship an order to your country, minus the average cost to ship the same order within the US.

The reason it costs as much as it does it a little confusing. The somewhat short answer is that the US currently pays subsidies to the Universal Postal Union to cover the cost of international shipping for other countries in the UPU.

The UPU is an intergovernmental organization controlled by the UN that controls the cost of shipping packages between 190 of the 195 countries in the world.

But because the US is one of the only countries in the world that does not financially support its federally run postal service provider, USPS is expected to cover the costs of those subsidies through its own earnings. Since USPS makes their earnings through shipping services the difference in costs is charged directly to businesses and residents shipping from the US.

If you've never experienced this before, you are a rare and lucky person. Over the last 10+ years it has become increasingly common for all major delivery services within the US* to mark packages as delivered up to 3 business days (meaning days of the week excluding weekends and holidays) before the package actually arrives. This practice is in place so that it appears that these delivery services are meeting unrealistic delivery time goals set by Amazon, as Amazon has continued to threaten to stop using their businesses in place of their own delivery company if they cannot. Since it is difficult to prove to Amazon that a package has not truly arrived once it's been marked as delivered, all parties involved have agreed that this is an acceptable business practice.

If, after the additional 3 business days, the package has still not arrived we recommend that you or the recipient of the package speaks with USPS about this. Under federal law, USPS will only discuss the whereabouts of a package with the designated recipient of that package. When Jon or I have attempted to speak with USPS in the past on behalf of a customer, the only details that they would share were yes or no responses to information we could already see on the tracking history.

*This scenario is most common in the US. If your order is headed outside of the US, it is possible that a situation like this might still occur, and we recommend similar steps be taken with the local postal service provider. Most countries have similar laws in place about who can and cannot request information about a package, so we would still unfortunately not be able to speak to the postal service provider on your behalf.

We often receive emails from customers asking if we can provide any additional tracking information for their order. Unfortunately, once the package has left our hands we know about as much as you do regarding its whereabouts.

Depending on where your order is headed, there are occasionally ways to get additional information. For packages that will be handed over to countries that do not offer tracking on non-domestic parcels, those packages are usually still tracked internally. Speaking with a representative of that postal service provider might be the best option to gaining new tracking information. There are also websites, such as 17track.net, that can sometimes pull that internal tracking information so long as the receiving country doesn’t assign a new tracking number to the package.

If you are placing an order that is intended to be a gift for someone else, we are happy to help as best as we can!

Here’s some general information regarding what we can and cannot do for gift orders:

• Things we can do (upon request)!

- Include a message or a note to the recipient

- Not include an invoice (we don’t include these anyways)

- Send the recipient tracking information as well

• Things we cannot do (even if you ask)!

- Lie on a customs form*

- Gift wrap (I’m really bad at it… so bad that it might insult them)

*If an order is leaving mainland US, Alaska or Hawaii, we are legally required to include a customs form on the outside of the packaging. This form is automatically generated by our shipping software as part of the shipping label. We are required to include the following information on this customs form: our business name, the contents of the package, the weight of those contents, and the cost of those contents. These items are always vaguely described (ex: Art Print, Card Deck, Painting), but the recipient of the package will clearly see on the outside of the package that they are receiving a package from Skullgarden, and what the cost of the item(s) within the box. Not included on the customs form are the shipping costs, or the tax/VAT/GST information (see more information about taxes here).

Regarding Customs Forms & Customs Departments

Customs forms are legal declarations provided by the sending of a package disclosing the contents and value of said package. This information is to be processed by the package’s country of origin, any country that may receive the package on its way to its destination, and the country in which the package is traveling to. This processing is handled through a government agency, often a subdivision of the country’s revenue department, but almost always referred to as either a Customs Department or Customs Agency.

Upon processing the package and its contents the Customs Department will decide whether the package will be accepted and passed on to the local postal service provider, or if the package will be rejected and either disposed of or returned to the sender. The Customs Department might also decide that a package’s contents are of a value or type in which fees or taxes are to be collected by either the recipient or sender of the package. In cases when the sender is expected to collect those fees, Skullgarden will have already done so, and the customs form should reflect that in some way.

Information Skullgarden is required to share on a customs form

A customs form will include the following information:

• Our business name

• A description of the item(s)

• Harmonized System (HS) Code for the item(s)

- HS Codes are internationally recognized tax codes used to identify the type of good or service a thing is

• The value of the item(s)

• The weight of the item(s)

- For some reason my shipping software reports weights as equally divided between items from the total weight

Can Skullgarden alter the reported cost of your order

No.

Listen. I understand. I really do. But, there’s a reason why more and more countries are requiring businesses of any size to collect VAT/GST at the point of sale. They know. We know that they know. They know that we know that they know because we hear things, if you know… what I mean.*

If you’re concerned or have questions about how or when VAT/GST might be collected, please take a moment to read through our Tax information (I spent several days researching and writing it all out, so I hope someone does!). Please also take a moment to look up your local VAT/GST laws to see what your responsibilities might be if you’re not already familiar with them. There are a few countries that will charge you duty fees for orders over a certain amount, there are a few countries that will expect you to self report your out of country purchases when you file your taxes. Maybe your country doesn’t even care?

Can Skullgarden alter the item description

Not necessary

It has been brought to our attention that there are a handful of countries that do not allow the import of certain things that we sell. Some of these import laws are meant to enforce certain religious beliefs, some laws are meant to protect citizens from what that government has deemed deceptive, and then there are some laws that exist because people hate fun.

There are 195 countries on this planet, each with their own unique rules. Rules, by the way, that can change one way or the other at a moment’s notice. Skullgarden is a two person (and three cats) business run out of a small house in a small town in an average sized state. It would be incredibly difficult for us to keep up with which countries have or have not made certain things no longer acceptable. It might even be difficult for you, as a citizen of one of these countries, to know what things have been deemed off limits because some import laws only ban things from entering the country but are perfectly fine with the selling of those items from a local source.

So, we ask 2 things:

• If you know your country doesn’t allow something to be imported, maybe hold off on buying that thing from us for now

• If you decide to buy it anyways, please don’t get upset with us if it gets rejected by your country’s customs agency

- Orders returned due to customs rejections will be refunded, minus the cost of shipping

For the sake of keeping things simple, when I fill out the information on a customs form I use basic and vague descriptions for what the items inside the package are. Such wonderful descriptions as: Art Print, Painting, Playing Cards, Art Book.*

*It is important to know that all customs agencies across the globe are legally allowed to open and review the contents of any packages entering their country, and are allowed (and often do) research the validity of the information included on the customs form.

There is a 99% chance that this is a scam, you are a scammer, and I’m not dealing with you.

Courier companies that offer US based shipping addresses for people living outside of the US are legit, and often provide their customers with a PO number or some similar secondary identifier. Those companies are focused on moving packages outside of the US however, and very rarely (some might even say never) offer retrieval services.

If you are using such a company to purchase items within the US, I am more than happy to ship your order to them. All shipping to addresses within the US is free, so you would not be paying anything. If you’re not happy with that, it’s because you’re attempting to scam me and I will ignore all of your emails.

No trips to Western Union. No sharing of banking information. No DHL money orders.