• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

GAF Secret Santa 2012

Status
Not open for further replies.
If anybody forgets to wap their gifts or has a customs issue, just shoot us a PM and we will tell your TT not to open his/her box :)

Make sure to send it to whoever gave you your TT, 'mkay?
 
Sorry I've been quiet guys! I've been getting ready for my wedding that's coming up in less than two weeks! Holy shit...

BUT!

If I've neglected or ignored a PM, please shoot me another so I can hook you up and take care of whatever issue you had!
 
kNQyZ.jpg

This is what 106 pages and 31K words of drek looks like. What's it about? Can it possibly be worse than 50 Shades of Grey? Only my Tiny Tim can say for sure.

Printer fucked up every which way from Friday. They didn't even know they had an online order until maybe half an hour before I walked in, and they didn't have the material for what I ordered.

Got a free upgrade to color printing, though I'd still have preferred the saddle stitch I ordered over comb binding, but oh well.
 
This is what 106 pages and 31K words of drek looks like. What's it about? Can it possibly be worse than 50 Shades of Grey? Only my Tiny Tim can say for sure.

Printer fucked up every which way from Friday. They didn't even know they had an online order until maybe half an hour before I walked in, and they didn't have the material for what I ordered.

Got a free upgrade to color printing, though I'd still have preferred the saddle stitch I ordered over comb binding, but oh well.

Awesome! I don't think your TT will care about the binding though
 
Secret Santa, I will be away starting the week before Christmas and won't be back until the 2nd week of the new year. I will be with my parents so I won't be able to check my present but it should still be at the post office when I get back.

I will still check on this thread from time to time.

I have a rough idea what to get my TT. Going to go shopping and have it hopefully shipped out by this week or next.
 
I ordered my present, hopefully it'll get here soon. I had such a hard time finding something, so I really hope they like it. Should we put our names on the presents?
 
Mine's packed up and ready to go, should ship tomorrow presuming I can get to the post office during business hours.
 
The bank finally cleared my check, so I bought my Tiny Tim his present. It isn't exactly what I wanted to get him, but seeing my original item being $89, and this slightly different version of the same character being $48, I had to go with the latter. I think he would be quite please with his present! :-D
 
How does sending something international work. Is there a price or is by what it is like electronics? I just don't want to get hit with huge import/export charges or other charges if I can help it.

I looked through the buy/sell, but did not see anything on how they ship without getting hit.
 
How does sending something international work. Is there a price or is by what it is like electronics? I just don't want to get hit with huge import/export charges or other charges if I can help it.

I looked through the buy/sell, but did not see anything on how they ship without getting hit.

I can't remember which, but one of the shipping methods is more affordable and reliable than the other. But in general, you pay out the ass for international shipping (unless there IS a trick I'm missing).
 
How does sending something international work. Is there a price or is by what it is like electronics? I just don't want to get hit with huge import/export charges or other charges if I can help it.

I looked through the buy/sell, but did not see anything on how they ship without getting hit.

Via USPS, it'll go by the size of your box, plus weight, plus destination. Anything over a certain measurement which qualifies it as "large box" incurs an additional fee. They'll give you different prices which equate to delivery time. For this, I would send out VERY early and go for one of the cheaper ones, but that's just me. They make you sign a Customs form, which makes you list return and send to address, plus a description of the item(s) inside, plus its value. I think most people write "gift" just to be non-descriptive, especially for a Secret Santa. The value doesn't have to be accurate either, but I feel like that's an insurance thing and that's all they'll cover if the package is lost; correct me if I'm wrong. $10 is probably what you want to write there, regardless of the truth. The Customs form goes on top of the box, so your TT could easily see "Item: Fleshlight Comic Books" which would spoil the surprise. You can (and should) get tracking # for an additional fee, but I think it ramps the cost up quite a bit. As usual, be sure to tape the box up well and packing materials (bubble wrap, packing peanuts, whatever) since this international package will be handled much more than a national one.

edit: forgot to mention, they have these international Flat Rate boxes, where you buy the box and if whatever you have fits inside, it goes for the flat cost regardless of weight or destination. I don't know the prices, though.
 
Via USPS, it'll go by the size of your box, plus weight, plus destination. Anything over a certain measurement which qualifies it as "large box" incurs an additional fee. They make you sign a Customs form, which makes you list return and send to address, plus a description of the item(s) inside, plus its value. I think most people write "gift" just to be non-descriptive, especially for a Secret Santa. The value doesn't have to be accurate either, but I feel like that's an insurance thing and that's all they'll cover if the package is lost; correct me if I'm wrong. $10 is probably what you want to write there, regardless of the truth. The Customs form goes on top of the box, so your TT could easily see "Item: Fleshlight Comic Books" which would spoil the surprise. You can (and should) get tracking # for an additional fee, but I think it ramps the cost up quite a bit. As usual, be sure to tape the box up well and packing materials (bubble wrap, packing peanuts, whatever) since this international package will be handled much more than a national one.

edit: forgot to mention, they have these international Flat Rate boxes, where you buy the box and if whatever you have fits inside, it goes for the flat cost regardless of weight or destination. I don't know the prices, though.

Awesome info, thank you!
 
Made small steps today- hoping to pick away at making a parcel for my TT then getting it sent early December! Hope it's all okay for him!
 
just got a couple boxes from work complete with packaging bubbles and stuff. so now i gotta figure out what i'm getting my bro and order it so i can actually have it sent off at a decent time.
 
Just shipped mine out, expected delivery is Black Friday.

What a weirdly awkward experience. If it was just the gift, I'd be fine, but it's the other crap like the book, card, note, and packaging for an utter stranger I feel weird about.

Oh well, the deed is done.
 
Just shipped mine out, expected delivery is Black Friday.

What a weirdly awkward experience. If it was just the gift, I'd be fine, but it's the other crap like the book, card, note, and packaging for an utter stranger I feel weird about.

Oh well, the deed is done.

Nice! I wish I was as on the ball with this as you guys are, I'm still waiting on that Amazon super saver shipping...
 
I can't remember which, but one of the shipping methods is more affordable and reliable than the other. But in general, you pay out the ass for international shipping (unless there IS a trick I'm missing).

You can also buy gifts from places that can ship locally in their country (amazon international is a popular choice). Less personal, but helps in a pinch.

Here's a post from SA relating to shipping to the UK that might help:
How to ship to the UK without being an idiot about it.

If you do much in the way of mailing, you probably know everything I'm about to say so there's no real point in reading this effort post. This post is for yanks, though I'm sure pissflaps has plenty to offer anyone who's interested and will be happy to offer some handy tips.

If you've never had to send anything internationally, here's how to do it [especially during Christmas time] so it doesn't completely suck.

1.) When you need to mail your shit by.

You'll probably end up using USPS. The post office gets a bad rap, but actually does a pretty good job. However, they have to do a few things with distribution that means that you need to be aware of deadlines. Anything that goes by International First Class [gets thrown on a boat and forgotten about] needs to go out by the end of November if you're on the East Coast and probably a week or two before that if you're in the rest of the United States. IFC and Media Mail both get absolutely dumped on during high load times, so you're lucky if anything gets where it needs to be in any sort of reasonable time frame. International Priority [those handy flat rate box things] is usually between 6 - 10 days, but during December you'll want to have it out by the second Monday of the month or so to guarantee that it gets past customs at any time resembling Christmas.

After that it gets prohibitively expensive for a stupid little secret Santa thing so you probably shouldn't even bother. (UPS and Fed-ex fall into this category unless you're filling a boat of stuff.)

2.) What you'll end up paying.

Two general rules to help you with your purchases. 1.) Space is more expensive than weight. It can only be 2 pounds, but if its more than a cubic foot you're going to pay out the ass for it. 2.) Buy everything online. It saves you about 10%, you don't have to stand in line, and you can just drop off the package rather than standing in line. Go make an account and save yourself a little time.

The absolute minimum you'll end up paying for shipment of anything of any size to the UK is $11.39. That's international first class, and only applies for shipments smaller than 12"x12"x12" and underneath 1lbs of weight. It ramps up significantly after that. Flat-rate envelopes and small boxes are $13.25. If at all possible YOU SHOULD AVOID THESE and use either the medium sized box [~$20] or normal priority international. Both the flat rate envelope and small box are completely untracked and vanish all the damn time. It's significantly worse during high load times. Calling the post office about this will result in someone smugly telling you that they can't be arsed to keep track of these shipments.

For reference: weight limits on International First class and the envelopes/boxes is four pounds. Weight Limits on priority and medium boxes is 40 pounds.

You can get all the various "priority boxes, envelopes" etc. at the post office in the lobby.

3.) Don't bother with Insurance

It takes 90 days to review your case, and usually another three to six months to get you any sort of money back. [I've never had to file a claim during Christmas time, but I imagine all of these times are exponentially increased.] You need all sorts of paperwork to prove value of the items and have to make several trips to the post office to fight it out if it vanishes. If its damaged they'll probably just tell you you didn't pack it right and not give you any money anyways.

That said its like $2.50, so if it makes you feel better go ahead. Just make sure that you keep all your receipts and pack the items really well and have the person receiving it keep all the padding and stuff.

In conclusion:
1.) Buy everything online.
2.) Get it out early
3.) Expect to spend about $20-25, but you can avoid all the lines and stuff pretty easily.
4.) Get something smaller and heavier rather than lighter and bigger.
5.) If you're made of money avoid all of this and use UPS.
 
Dear TT:

Your gift is bought! It's sitting in my apartment and I'll be shipping it out as soon as I get back from Thanksgiving.
 
My gift got misplaced around SH. The online seller will help me tomorrow. If I get it it should be on its way tomorrow afternoon. ^^
 
I've spent the last week away because of work, but today I'm back and eager to shop for presents the whole weekend. Hopefully I can get something great for my TT and have it shipped out in a few days.

Edit: Got my TT 2 presents so far. Wanting to get a third, but my town doesn't have shops that stock the kind of stuff my TT likes. However I'm going to Sydney tomorrow, will definitely be able to pick up something there.

Edit Edit: Got all my present sorted! 4 items for my TT, really really hope they like what I got them.
 
My Tiny Tim's present came in the mail today. It's chilling in my room. I'll have to find time soon to pick up some wrapping paper and massacre the process of wrapping up a gift.
 
I just figured out what to get my tiny tim, hopefully I can get it in, packaged and mailed out on time. Placed the order tonight. Excited!


Also, if my Secret Santa is reading this... I'm sorry I'm so bad at talking about myself to give you a better idea of what I like. My whole family hates shopping for me =\
 
Aaaaaand USPS tracking shows my gift was delivered this afternoon. Hopefully my Tiny Tim isn't out of town for the weekend or something : /

Having a tough time too.

Echo seems busy so is there anyone who wants to help out? :p

I'm willing to help out with anyone still puzzling over what to get their Tiny Tim.
 
I need to get on buying my TT their gift! I'm finalizing my wedding plans (8 days holy wow) so I've been slacking on non-wedding stuff!
 
I need to get on buying my TT their gift! I'm finalizing my wedding plans (8 days holy wow) so I've been slacking on non-wedding stuff!

Lol, I am in the same boat with all the travelling (sorry about the pm delays guys). It will truly be sad if we are the Lame Santas this year...

I got AWESOME secret santa tips, though, I'm dying to start shopping when I get back home (tomorrow)!
 
Aaaaaand USPS tracking shows my gift was delivered this afternoon. Hopefully my Tiny Tim isn't out of town for the weekend or something : /

I'm willing to help out with anyone still puzzling over what to get their Tiny Tim.
Thanks for the offer although echo just replied!

Think I'm done. I don't have many things but I feel they're all enjoyable.
 
Shipped mine on Monday. Hope it will arrive safe and sound.

It has just arrived at my door safe and sound. It caught me off guard, then I saw it was from Berlin and got all giddy.

That was quick if you just shipped that Monday.

Can't wait to open the presents on Christmas. Thank you for the candy and chocolates they look delicious!

I have mine ready to go out international on Monday.

Schönen Dank Fritz!

KwdCWl.jpg
 
It has just arrived at me door safe and sound. It caught me off guard, then I saw it was from Berlin and got all giddy.

That was quick if you just shipped that Monday.

Can't wait to open the presents on Christmas. Thank you for the candy and chocolates they look delicious!

I have mine ready to go out international on Monday.

Schönen Dank Fritz!

KwdCWl.jpg

Niiiiiice. Makes me feel like my effort was inadequate now.

Speaking of which, I'll probably make the book
I included a public Google doc, but I want to give my TT first crack at it and not spoil it.
 
Niiiiiice. Makes me feel like my effort was inadequate now.

Speaking of which, I'll probably make the book
I included a public Google doc, but I want to give my TT first crack at it and not spoil it.
:lol yea so many packages.

Will keep thinking on my gifts for a while and send them out some time next month.

edit: ordered early because I didn't trust the stock levels and the price was all over the place for some reason (each time I checked it was different)
 
Just sent mine out!

EDIT: I didn't put my username on it anywhere...but there should be enough evidence that it's a GAF thing lol
 
I got some suggestions from Toki, but I managed to find something for mine. I'm missing a bit more but hope I can get it before next week. I want to ship it out ASAP!
 
Anyone know in places, online or retail, where I can find some groovy wrapping paper? The gift is at my house, now I need to wrap this bugger up.
 
Man I knew that $17 quote from Canada Posts website was too good to be true, but I didn't expect it to be less then 1/2 what the actual cost would be.

Oh well, Enjoy your gifts TT.
 
Anyone know in places, online or retail, where I can find some groovy wrapping paper? The gift is at my house, now I need to wrap this bugger up.

What kind are you looking for? You can get some solid colors and pair them with a nice color ribbon. Ill send you some nice instructions for interesting ribbons.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom