Happy New Year – Back to Business as Usual

Hope you all had a great time over the holiday period – I spent the time almost entirely ‘unplugged’ from the internet and with family members that are usually several thousand miles away and made many great memories both for them and for myself..

Of course, the only disadvantage to taking time off like this is that there is a small mountain of work that has piled up while I was away, and so it’s time to roll up sleeves and get everything back on track before we can kick the year off in earnest..

January should actually be a very interesting month, as several new and exciting products – mostly to do with our Legendary Swords Project – are about to come to fruition.

But first things first, there is a rather large load of emails and customer service related stuff that needs my immediate attention – so if you did email me directly over the holiday period or had a customer service issue escalated to me personally over the period that we were officially closed, please bear with me for a day or two while I go through them all and ensure everything is properly addressed (if you ever have emailed me personally before, you will know my replies are always very detailed and reflect my personal commitment to the best possible customer service – but of course this takes time, and I will be working backwards from the oldest contact to the most recent and continue to follow up until each inquiry is resolved to our customers satisfaction).

As such, if you are waiting for a reply from me, please be patient – I promise you I will do my best to get back to you as fast as humanly possible – and then, once up to date, stay tuned. As I said, 2019 is going to start off with some very interesting releases..!

Will update you all again shortly – if you held off emailing me or feel that something slipped through the cracks during the holiday period (our skeleton staff actually kept things running fairly smoothly while we were officially ‘closed’) feel free to contact me here

Thanks all!
Paul

See You In 2019

As of today the SBG sword store is officially closed and will be closed from the 21st of December to the 7th of January 2019. Much longer than usual, but I rarely spend time with my family and while I feel selfish about it, I really do need to take this time to spend my undivided attention with them.

Anyway, before I officially close down for the year, I wanted to make sure that as many loose ends have been tied up as possible, so here are a few notes that may apply to some customers that they will probably want to know about..

NEW ORDERS

Any orders placed from today will not be processed until after we get back on the 7th of January. There may be exceptions – as we do have a skeleton crew manning things – but please do not count on it..!

Also, please be a little bit patient with us – personally I will be diving into all the emails and customer service stuff the day I get off from 4 flights taking up 24 hours – so I promise we our best, but it may take a few extra days until we are properly caught up.

CHRISTMAS ORDERS

We did state on the website until a few days ago that orders placed after the 10th of December will ship in early 2019 – and for some orders this will be true, for as we emphasize in our special annual article “Christmas Sword Buying Guide” the most important tip for Christmas is to buy as early as possible, for as the date creeps closer the number of lost or broken parcels skyrockets – and we honestly think its a really bad time to order a sword if it has been left until a week or so before the big day..

That said, we have noticed a few bottlenecks with our suppliers – again, another common issue at this time of year. While our office will be officially closed – the warehouses we use will keep shipping until the shipping services themselves start to shut up shop. And while we will have a skeleton staff on hand, it is quite possible that some orders placed after the 10th that have not been provided a tracking number may not get the tracking number, but the sword itself may still arrive..

Whatever the case may be, everything will be sorted out when we get back to the office after the 7th, though as stated before please be patient as we catch up through the backlog.

CUSTOM KATANA UPDATE

I literally just got a few photos that I have been waiting for on the current batch of SBG Custom Katana – it came too late for me to be able to send out updates right now, but I have updated the status page and here’s a quick pic to tide you over until I get back and can update properly.

Some of the Swords from Batch 44

These should be finished and start shipping in early January, so the next update should be a very positive one..! So please bear with us..

See You In 2019

I need to finish packing my bags and tying up as many other loose ends as I can before I head off – so again, thanks to everyone who helped make 2018 a successful year and look forward to servicing all your sword needs again in 2019.

72 hours of specials..

As we race towards Christmas, we assume that you have all your Christmas sword shopping needs already taken care of.. The closer we get to Christmas, the higher the chance that anything ordered now will be delayed and not make it until after New Years..

But for those of you scrambling for something last minute – we have some great offers over the next 72 hours that will all wind up at midnight EST the 17th of December..

First of these is a brand new addition to our popular budget Chinese line – a huge almost 5′ long ‘Miao Dao’ for just $200!

Next up, the premium quality Hollow Ground Crecy Sword by the artisans at Kingston Arms..

Crecy War Sword - Sharp by Kingston Arms
Crecy War Sword – Sharp by Kingston Arms

MSRP on this one is $500, and our everyday low price is $329.99 plus free shipping. But from now until the 17th it is available at well below the wholesale cost price, allowing you to grab a last minute bargain..

And finally – well, this next one isn’t quite ready yet.. But stay tuned – what’s coming will only be available for a very short time, and only for those who are quick enough to take advantage of it..

Time is running out..

The clock is ticking and time is running out to secure some sword presents for Christmas 2018.. Now with each day that passes, the chances of a lost, bungled or delayed shipment start to go up exponentially..

Indeed, if I could boil the SBG Christmas Sword Buying Guide down to a single most important sentence it would be ‘get your Christmas shopping done as early as possible’ – and at the store it is so important that it is policy..

Order before the 10th to get the order in for Christmas. Order after the 10th and while we will do our best, shipping delays and other factors out of our control mean that we will be discouraging last minute orders or rush shipments. Not good for you and not good to receive a sword in unbattered condition..

Furthermore, we are going on holidays too – a fairly long one this time, from the 22nd of December to the 7th of January. So as much as we would like to, we wont be able to help with last minute disasters caused by orders placed after the 10th..

Orders will still be able to be placed during our vacation period, however emails will not be answered and no shipping will occur until we are back on the 7th.

There will likely be a few last minute specials and offers, though many of the best deals have come and gone in the sales that followed thanksgiving. However don’t bet the farm on a special coming along – functional swords have very low profits and its very hard to discount any further than we do on a daily basis, so while some new offers may well come up – don’t hold out. The time to get Christmas sword shopping taken care of is NOW..

CYBER MONDAY..

We weren’t going to join in the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales hype thingy – and I am sure our newsletter subscribers are getting hit by all kinds of offers in their inbox. Sword related ones are currently being discussed on the SBG forum here..

But here’s one more to the mix, requested by Ryujin to help move some excess stock of O-Katana T10 blades.. And so for today only, they go from the most expensive T10 Ryujin blade to the most affordable, from $269 to $179..

Just today, and that’s it – at midnight EST it will turn into a pumpkin – so if you want a genuine good deal, here one of the best..