Closing in on $250 k and sharing the campaign
about 4 years ago – Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 12:22:52 PM

Day 4 Reflections

Our most funded project of all time was our 2020 Kickstarter campaign for Crokinole that ended at $394 k.  Here we are just 4 days into our 22 day campaign and already well over $200,000, so we are looking at our biggest project yet!  We are so happy for your support and want you all to know we will do all we can to fulfill this project as quickly as possible.  This is our SIXTH crokinole campaign and our 47th successful project!  Over those prior 5 projects we have fulfilled more than 6,000 boards and our Kickstarter total funds raised is over $2.2 million in the last 11 years.  You can check out our full history HERE.   We haven't always delivered on time but want to keep accountable to all of you backers so keep that google sheet of our history current.  

Our Secret Timeline

While you all can see we've set a delivery date for June 2022, we actually put the order in for our Wave 1 boards several months ago.  We had to have the 2,000 crokinole bags made ahead of time to provide 1500 of those to the board factory so they could package the board and bags together for this campaign and allow them time to make the boards.  Our Wave One order consisted of:

• 750 Mahogany Boards
• 750 Rosewood Boards
• 750 Mahogany Boards + Carrying Cases
• 750 Rosewood Boards + Carrying Cases
• 500 Black carrying cases inside their own shipping boxes (18 X 18 X 6 inch boxes)

The 2,000 carrying cases were completed in November 2021 and sent to the board factory, and the boards all finished production right before Chinese New Year's break, around the time we launched the campaign.  The factory will finish up the boxing of boards/carrying cases right after CNY and send them in the proper quantity to the respective fulfillment centers as soon as we have numbers for them.  

The end result of all of this is that we HOPE to fulfill this project EARLY and deliver WAVE 1 boards in April or May and beat expectations.  We fully expect Wave 1 to sell out soon and will be offering WAVE 2 boards for fulfilment in September 2022.  We will begin that production run as soon as we have final numbers for the factory based on the end of this campaign.  

Share Please?

This being our 6th Crokinole Campaign we can tell you that every year we have run a Crokinole project we get dozens of people that contact us after the campaign asking if they can please get a board for $99 and every year we end up directing them to our website where we will sell any remaining boards at MSRP.  Those boards quickly sell out and then we just let people know they will need to wait another year or two for the next campaign.  Many of these people tell us they had friends/family that backed the game during the campaign but they didn't hear about it until too late.  Don't be that friend, please consider sharing this project with your gaming group, your family or friends via social media or other means.  It only takes a second and would mean a LOT to us.  We want to keep the campaign going strong but that takes help from all of you.  

Many thanks again for all your support and help and we look forward to getting you all your rewards in a timely manner!

You Backers are Amazing!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 09:06:50 AM

We did not anticipate...

We knew that this season of Crokinole would be bigger than last but you have blown the top off our expectations!

To give you a feel for what you've accomplished, here are some numbers:

** In the first 24 hours: 104% increase over the first 24 from last season.

** Of the mahogany boards with cases included, only 42% remain.

** Rosewood was our most popular board ever and mahogany is well on its way to beating that. 62% of orders are for mahogany and only 38% are rosewood.

Norway, Switzerland, and Others

I apologize for leaving Norway and Switzerland out and will get your countries added shortly as our EU distributor is able to ship to you with limited additional shipping cost. When selecting countries, I didn't realize that EU left you out.

Israel

Israel is also being added as a shipping option. We don't have pricing on the shipping yet, but it will probably be around $100.

Wave 2 is Coming

As we run out of the current selections, I will begin posting a Wave 2 option with delivery in October to accommodate your friends and family who may be sitting on the fence trying to decide. What we currently have listed as Wave 1 is already in queue at the factory and will be manufactured and shipped soon after the Chinese New Year holiday. Wave 2 amounts will be determined based on the actual number of boards sold and will hopefully be manufactured by May. If that is the case, we will actually be able to deliver before October. (Under promise and over deliver.)

Please Share

If you know of anyone who would like enjoy this game, please share it on Facebook, Instagram, or just by text. I anticipate that some of the Wave 1 options will be gone by the end of today. Even if they end up in Wave 2, the boards will be delivered by Christmas and will make great presents under the tree. I've seen several comments about how their Mayday Crokinole Board is everyone's favorite family game at Christmas time.

We truly do appreciate all of you who are back for another board or who have shared this passion of ours with your friends and family. I know there are always those vocal few who have had a bad experience with their board, but it makes me happy when I'm reminded that the grand majority are very happy with the product and willing to encourage others to join us.

Until next time... Stay safe!

Dave and the Mayday Team

Funding Goal Reached in Just 5 Minutes!
about 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 10:56:16 PM

We are a go!

Not that we are surprised after the last round of Crokinole, but I think 5 minutes is a new record for us. Thank you to all of you who supported us in the past and are back again. We learn with every campaign and strive to make each one better than the last. To you who are first-time backers... Welcome to the Crokinole club! This is one of our favorite games of all time and are confident that you, your friends, and family will love it too.

I'll be your Cruise Director for most of this journey as we finish manufacturing and work with the shippers to bring the boards to you. As you'll see, I'm not the most eloquent or tactful at times, but I do my best to bring you the best product possible with the least number of hiccups.

Until next time... stay safe!

Dave and the Mayday Team

That Escalated Quickly!
about 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 10:55:45 PM

Blowing by our goals....

Um.. wow... just wow!  We are so excited and frankly blow away by all of your support!  As you may know our highest grossing Kickstarter ever was our 2020 Crokinole boards (here) which did $394 k.  That project did $80,000 on the first 24-hour period, while this project has already blown through $100,000 in 4.5 hours!  If you're curious how this is doing (as we are!) you compare the daily data from the last project here and this projects daily progress here.  Kicktraq is a great tool for checking progress so we love it!  

FAQs

We are going through the many comments and are adding steadily to the FAQs as we see repeat questions.  We know many of you will have questions we haven't addressed and will continue to expand the FAQ and reply to all of you throughout the campaign.  Please have a look if you are interested in local pick up or want to know what we have done to try and mitigate any manufacturing defects this round.  

The Future

This is just a few hours into Day 1 of the campaign, we will continue to provide updates and reply to comments and messages and update you all as the project progresses.  We are happy to report that our Wave 1 is scheduled for June 2022 delivery, but we actually are just finishing up production in late February so really hope we can deliver in May or even April.  If we sell out of Wave 1 we will open up a Wave 2 with an expected fulfillment of September 2022.  If any of you are considering a board and haven't pledged yet, we recommend you do so quickly before Wave 1 sells out!