Seasonal deals coming?

Yeah, I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter about whether seasonal sales are actually worth it compared to running a group order. Honestly, after being in a few group buys over the past couple months, I’m with you—group orders almost always beat waiting for a sale, at least in my experience.

So here's how my last group order went, and you'll see why I think that way. The timeline: we started gathering interest in the forum around mid-month, had the list finalized within a week, and payment went out about two weeks after that. From payment to delivery was roughly 12 days domestic, which is pretty standard for most vendors in this space. The grouping itself added maybe a week overall compared to a solo order, but the price difference more than made up for it.

Packaging stealth was solid. Everything came in a plain bubble mailer with no branding or logos. Inside, the IDs were in a non-descript Mylar bag sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard to prevent bending. No decoy items or extra wrapping, but the envelope itself was thin enough to look like junk mail or a standard letter. I’ve seen some vendors use vacuum sealing for larger orders, but this was just the basic setup—no flags raised.

Communication with the group organizer was pretty quick. They responded to PMs within 24 hours during the sign-up phase, and once the order was placed, they gave a shipping update within two days. I didn’t have to chase them for updates, which is always a plus. Obviously, the vendor themselves didn’t talk to me directly, so all my info came filtered through the organizer. That’s the tradeoff—you lose direct vendor communication, but the organizer handled it well enough.

As for value for money, I’d give it a solid 9/10 on the VFM scale. The per-unit cost was about what you’d expect for a small bulk discount, probably 30–40% less than ordering solo, even if the vendor had some flash sale. Plus, group orders let you split minimum order quantities that would be ridiculous for one person. The only downside is you’re locked into the group’s specs—everyone has to agree on a state or template. If you want something custom, solo is better.

The main upsides? Price per unit is significantly lower than waiting for seasonal deals, you get access to higher-tier materials or features that are locked behind minimums, and it's usually faster than waiting for a holiday sale that might not even happen. On the flip side, timing is out of your hands—you're dependent on the organizer's schedule. There's also less room for fine-tuning details like exact UV placement or microprint shifts. And if someone flakes, the whole thing can get delayed or canceled.

So yeah, unless you’re dead set on a specific vendor’s Black Friday deal or something, group orders are the way to go. You don’t have to gamble on when a sale drops, and the savings are more predictable.

They usually do something around holidays. Keep an eye out

Good to know, appreciate the info

Sign up for email notifications, thats how I found out about the last sale