March 15 release

We’re presently targeting Wednesday, March 15 at 8:00 PM Central for our next release. Note that Daylight Saving Time will be in effect for us in Kansas. The 30+ brushes to be included may be previewed here.

The reason we’re hedging around the date a little this time is we’ve confirmed reports that the five minutes of protection that should be allowed the first prospective buyer to move a particular brush into check-out has not been occurring consistently, if at all. We don’t know how long this has been the case. We’re working with Shopify and PayPal to analyze and, hopefully, rectify the problem. It’s unlikely that any change will occur before this coming Wednesday, and it could take considerably longer. But if the possibility of a fast fix emerges, we’ll probably re-visit the release date.

We’ll post more on this topic separately. For now, what we can say with confidence is that the first person to effectively submit payment for a brush within PayPal gets the brush. That might sound fair as far as it goes, but it obviously doesn’t address issues related to opportunity cost for a customer who proceeds to check-out with a brush – and remains there instead of pursuing another one – based on the assumption that no one else is or will be simultaneously in check-out with the same brush prior to expiration of five minutes from that customer’s entry. We completely understand and have been sensitive to this concern from well before our website’s launch in March of last year. This is not the way it’s supposed to work (and Shopify concurs). Apologies for all resulting frustration and disappointment. Sincere thanks for perseverance, patience, and support. We don't take any of it for granted, ever.

So, with that said, please consider this. The next release will entirely comprise brushes in six handle designs that haven’t previously been offered. We could be wrong, but our guess is that this one will blow out relatively fast. Customers who have been unsettled by the pace (fairly described by some as frenzied) of past releases might do best to stand out of this one. There will be more of these brushes. We’re committed to the designs.

Pricing for the new brushes will be as follows:

Tut (26 mm) $170
El Dorado (26 mm) $180
Beehive (26 mm) $180
Winston (26 mm) $170
Buck Rogers (26 mm) $175
Moe (26 mm) $165

For what it’s worth, variability in pricing mainly reflects consideration of how much time and effort is involved in turning and/or finishing a handle.

Stay tuned for more. You can also follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook for announcements/updates, and we post notices in the appropriate places on B&B, TSN, and DFS (you'll probably have to navigate to the last page of the linked thread on these sites to find most recent posts).