Posted by Admin on 3/17/2020 to
Store Info
(Updated August 11, 2020)
For estimated shipping delays to your location, please see "Postal & Courier Services" below for information.
Postal & Courier Services
- At the time of this writing, our main shipping services in North America are still operating (Canada Post, USPS, etc.). They may be making minor changes to the way they operate (for example Canada Post is no longer accepting signatures at the door, but leaving a card for you to pick up your item at the post office). Deliveries may be delayed due to complications that Canada Post and the USPS are facing.
- *UPDATED*: Canadian Shipments: Despite all the bad news in the media, we are actually seeing very good delivery speeds with Canada Post, typically with only minor delays of a few extra days. Most problems seem to be in the GTA and Montreal areas; we are seeing deliveries for these areas in 2-5 business days typically. Other parts of Canada seem to be at near-normal delivery speeds with maybe an extra day or two in transit. Please note that there will always be the occasional exception, but 9 out of 10 orders are being delivered in a timely manner now.
- *UPDATED*: Canadian Shipments: Please note that we are no longer upgrading GTA and Montreal shipments to Xpresspost; shipping has now returned to CA Post Expedited Parcel. (Canada Post had been offering promotional Xpresspost pricing, but sadly those discounts have now ended.) As things slowly return to normal, we do not expect this to be a factor in shipping times.
- U.S. Shipments: We are currently seeing only minor delays of an additional 1-3 business days with delivery times.
- International orders (outside of Canada/U.S.A.) have been temporarily suspended due to extreme delays. We plan to reopen this service once conditions improve.
- We are doing our best to keep this information up-to-date, but please understand that the situation is changing rapidly. We will continue to process orders as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience!
Our Products
- All of our products ship directly from Japan or Bandai's U.S. distribution center. Due to high manufacturing costs in Japan, most Japanese toy & collectible products are manufactured in other parts of Asia (China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.). Products are then distributed through Japan's network of wholesale distributors, retailers, etc., before being packed and shipped to us. This results in quite a bit of transit time!
- The CDC has found that coronaviruses have "poor survivability" on surfaces such as products and packaging. From what we understand, the coronavirus might only survive a few hours to a day on cardboard surfaces, and are therefore safe by the time we receive them (it takes nearly a week for our shipments to arrive from Japan).
- Since our products are warehoused in Canada, they've probably been sitting here for a while when a customer has placed an order. And finally orders will spend at least a day in transit on their way to a customer (for local shipments; U.S. destinations and other parts of Canada are generally in transit for 2-8 business days).
- While in transit, packages have been handled by a number of postal workers and other personnel. To be safe, you can leave your packages in a secure location (like a garage, etc.) for up to 4 days to reduce any risk of coronavirus contamination on the shipping carton. Alternatively you can carefully open the carton, wash your hands and then remove the inner contents. Then dispose of the outer carton and wash your hands again. (These good practices apply to ALL mail, parcel, and grocery deliveries you are receiving from any company.)
- We are continuing to follow our usual extremely high standards of order prep & packing. This includes obsessive hand washing, no eating/drinking near product storage or order prep/packing area, regular cleaning of work areas and surfaces, etc.
We will update this page if there are any significant changes. Hopefully we can spread a little cheer at this difficult and stressful time :) If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message on our Contact Us page or Facebook. For more information on COVID-19, be sure to check out the Health Canada website here and the CDC website here.
Thanks for your continued support, stay safe out there!
-ICFJ