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Missing Piece Replacement

I have been considering for some time the possibility of starting a service to replace missing pieces in old puzzles. Educa's Lost Piece Service is useful, but when the puzzle is 8 years old, replacements are not available anymore. The Jigsaw Doctor is a great alternative, and the people that have used the service are happy with the work, but... What if it was possible to replace a missing piece in an old puzzle with a matching original piece? I have my lot of assembled incomplete puzzles. Perhaps some people might need a piece from my puzzle to complete their incomplete copy. Surely other users have another incomplete puzzle that they might be willing to offer for replacements. With time, it is possible to build a repository of puzzles available from many different users. Can it be done? I got input from visitors and customers, and I went back and forth without making up my mind until I recently completed 4 copies in a row of the 3000, Ravensburger, Oriental Folk Scene. It has helped me learn about puzzles and about the limitations of a lost piece replacement service. First of all, the same puzzle may have been manufactured at different times of the same year using...

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People are Honest (Most of the Time)

I once bought a puzzle that was described as new. I had specifically asked whether the puzzle was new or used, and the seller told me that it was new. Then, I received this: After having bought more than 1000 puzzles all over the world, I think I have been scammed in every continent. I don't take it personally anymore. It just happens. And yet, I can confidently say that most people are honest. I never presume bad intentions, and I tend to think that the cases in which the seller knows positively that he is lying are the exceptions. Of course, I have had some of those too. Most of the times, the seller simply doesn't distinguish between new and like new. In his opinion, the puzzle is new because, after all, it was just opened once but never assembled. But the buyer cannot read his mind. When the puzzle arrives, he opens it, and it doesn't match the description, it is too late. Even when most sellers will be willing to accept a return, they will not accept refunding the shipping costs and you end up losing. It is very rare that people will take full responsibility. How to avoid this? You need to ask...

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Buying Used Puzzles

We all know how it feels when we buy a used puzzle and it is incomplete. Sometimes we know long before the puzzle is assembled, when we feel it's impossible we have missed that corner piece, or there is no way the white piece we are missing will be among all the dark ones that are left. What if that happens with the same puzzle... 7 times? The 3000, Ravensburger, Oriental Folk Scene has been jinxed for me. Almost every time I found a copy and got it, the copy was not right and it couldn't be listed for sale. After verifying the puzzle, there were missing pieces, foreign pieces, damaged pieces, poorly manufactured pieces to replace a missing one... There was always something. That's why at Rare Puzzles all the used puzzles listed are complete and in good condition to the best of my knowledge. In order to list a good one, sometimes seven are discarded. And if I make a mistake, I am always accountable.

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Some Updates

Thank you very much to everyone who has provided input about features and appearance of the new website. The new Wordpress theme has been giving me some trouble for some time, but some issues are being solved. Here are some updates: The problem with the display of the images in the catalog has been (finally) solved. The images were not cropped proportionally and visitors couldn't see the whole picture of the box. That same problem remains in the single product page, but the solution for that is also close. The side navigation that allows users to filter the puzzles based on Brand, Content, Condition, and Number of Pieces was added after it was disappeared for some time. The option to include an additional filter to select In-Stock/Out-of-Stock puzzles is not feasible in Wordpress except with some tweaking of the code, which is beyond my knowledge at this point. However, in order to make the navigation easier, the Out-of-Stock items have been removed from the catalog. They are still indexed in search engines and they still appear in searches within the site, but only available puzzles are now listed. The shipping module has not been working, and users received the frustrating message...

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Testing the New Website

Here we go. During the next coming days you will often see the site down for maintenance and going back and forth through different changes and variations. It is because I am testing the different modules to be sure that everything keeps working. I hope the transition will not bee too bumpy. Feedback and suggestions are highly appreciated at [email protected]. (Photograph by vagawi).

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Raúl

This post is difficult to write, and perhaps I shouldn't write it at all. However, now that the site is changing, it is important to provide some background on the genesis of Rare Puzzles and a reference for the future. The core and heart of Rare Puzzles is in this post. In March of 2015, my brother Raúl was diagnosed with Klatskin tumor, a very uncommon type of cancer and extremely rare for patients in their 40's. It was inoperable and incurable. I was then working and living in Los Angeles, CA and decided to come back to Spain and be close to my brother for whatever time left he had. I quit my job, sold almost everything I owned, and took a flight back to Madrid. I am sure that most of you have been touched by cancer one way or another. I have learned that cancer doesn't leave any family untouched, so you probably know what it looks like. Raúl's cancer started to set our schedules, our routines, and our plans. Patients and caregivers. I knew I wanted to be there 24/7. I didn't want to have a job schedule. I wanted to be able to pick up my car keys at any moment and drive my mom to or from...

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Selling your Puzzles

The site will open for members to sell their own puzzles soon. I have been doing a lot of research in order to decide what type of software would do the work. Although the platform will remain the same, the appearance of the site is going to change. I hope it will be for the better. What this means is that other users will be able to open their own "stores" at Rare Puzzles, list their own items, set their own prices, and ship to whatever countries they wish. There will be some initial restrictions though: Members will need previous approval through a simple request form. Products listed will be reviewed for approval as well, at least in the beginning. Only Factory Sealed and Sealed Bag puzzles will be listed for now. Only out of catalog puzzles will be listed. It will be something similar to listing them on Ebay, but without insertion fees, without time limitations, and for half of Ebay's commissions. The payment preferred method will still be PayPal, since it provides the best protection for buyers and sellers. Terms and Conditions pages will be inserted covering all these details. And there will be some challenges, like creating highly customizable shipping options, or dealing with currency. However, we will work it out. Suggestions and ideas will always be...

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Life is Too Short…

... to count pieces of used puzzles. I recently received a beautiful card beautifully written from a friend and former customer, with an indeed beautiful photograph titled Florence under the Snow, Paris, 1950, by French photographer Édouard Boubat. It was a nice and elegant touch that I truly appreciated. Among the smart things that my friend wrote, there was a small footnote: "Life is too short to count pieces of used puzzles". He was referring to the verification process of every used puzzle listed at Rare Puzzles. It made me think that it was about time to introduce some of the changes that were planned. Starting next week Rare Puzzles will allow users to list and sell their own puzzles on the site. More details coming soon.    

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Country Restriction Removed

There is an important change that Rare Puzzles needed. When buyers outside of Spain wanted to get a puzzle, they contacted me first, then I reserved the puzzle for them, and finally I provided a shipping quote based on the size, weight, and country of delivery. By default, only addresses within Spain could order directly on the website. That was not usually a problem, except for a couple of times when several people requested the same puzzle. In those cases the puzzle was reserved for the person that contacted me first. It was not a problem, but it was inconvenient. From now on, any user will be able to register from any country and buy any puzzle without my intervention. However, they will need to add the shipping quote later. You can always buy puzzles in different orders and I will keep them for as long as you need if you want to save on shipping costs. Any suggestions and ideas for improvements are welcome at [email protected].

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