skailight orders

Welcome to skailight, U.S. group orders for EXO fans run by Steph & Mary! Since February 2013. EMAIL: [email protected] TWITTER: @skai_light

[skai-light]

Hello! Would there be anymore upcoming group orders to be held? Like Hyper Beat or any other future releases? Thanks

hello there! unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely. both of us are extremely busy in real life now ;n; though of course, we would announce it here and on twitter if we decided to open any group order! 

thank you for your interest! 

[skai-light]

Hey Steph, do you recommend Rhythmical goods? What are your favorite pcy lbs?

hey there! i don’t recommend rhythmical’s goods but i don’t not recommend their goods either, if that makes any sense! first, rhythmical is probably my 6th or 7th favorite chanyeol fansite (by their photos) -- which doesn’t sound very high, but there are a lot of chanyeol fansites out there. i think rhythmical puts out pretty good quality photos, which is always a plus to me. 

rhythmical’s first photobook, “burnt heart,” was a good photobook but did not blow me away; i would maybe rate it average or a little above average. there are certain things that i would’ve personally changed (e.g. choose a better font), but i did feel like a lot of the “bonus point” details that i like seeing in photobooks were there: designing a good logo, red foil lettering on the front cover, red foil logo on the back cover (!!), not neglecting the backs of photocards, having extra goodies such as more than several posters and a slogan (not a common goodie included in photobooks, since slogans are usually sold as a separate set! i like that rhythmical is including another one with their second photobook), etc. i don’t own the photobook so i could not see every page, but i did see some photo layouts that weren’t the norm. the design, while not super innovative, was pretty consistent throughout the set. i don’t feel that there were any egregious “mistakes” in the design! 

i’m going to guess that you are asking this because you are considering whether or not to buy rhythmical’s second photobook. if the photobook’s design turns out anything like the notice/mini site (as their first photobook was), i’m not too crazy about the design tbh! it’s a little babyish and it reminds me of another photobook. (a luhan one??) and personally i think at $45, the price is a bit steep for a non-favorite fansite! but then again, you do get a lot in the set. 

my top 3 favorite chanyeol photobooks are, roughly in this order: 

esprit “on air” 

esprit “it’s so amazing” 

spunky action baby “lovehate” 

hope that helps!! 

[skai-light]

For MPST, I got an email from usps on May 11 about shipping and it still didn't update. It means Mary only printed the shipping label but did not actually send it, right?

Hi! All the packages were picked up 2 days ago (Monday). Please send us an email so we can double check your tracking number. I just checked our records and it seems like all the packages have arrived at their destination already except for one IB photobook. 

Thanks!

[skai-light]

Hi, any news on our ForLuhan goods? She posted a tweet on April 2, and even included photos but I thought they would've arrived?

Hi!As of 4/14, Forluhan said that they will begin preparing to ship the photobooks around 4/20. Here’s a screencap of our email exchange:

[skai-light]

any code black news?

Hello! We sent Code Black Kai an email a couple of days ago, and here’s their reply:

I hope this answers your question! We’ll post an update on our twitter as soon as we get the goods. Thanks :)

[skai-light]

Hey! :D Any updates on ForLuhan's I-Primo? Thanks!

Hello! :) For Luhan said that they’ll be shipping the photobooks by the end of March. You can find pictures of the sample photobook+ gifts here. We’ll make sure to update our twitter as soon as we receive the goods ^^ Thanks!

[skai-light]

KimKai is doing a third DVD set! Thoughts?

Sorry, but we won’t be doing a group order for KIMKAI’s 3rd DVD :(

[skai-light]

hi, i've seen people receiving lovesick's 2nd dvd already and i was wondering whether you knew if they've shipped the group order out~

Hello! Lovesick Luhan said that they’ll be shipping overseas orders starting this weekend (March 28-29). You can find the tweet here. Given that there won’t be any further delays, we can expect the DVDs to arrive a week after the shipping date. We’ll be updating our twitter as soon as we receive them. Thanks! :)

[skai-light]

will u be doing a group order for kim kai's 3rd dvd?

Hi! We will unfortunately not be doing a group order for KimKai’s 3rd DVD, “Can’t Control.” 

[skai-light]

do you know if anybody else will be doing a Mr. Destiny group order?

Unfortunately not, sorry :( 

[skai-light]

I received my "My Secret Deer" DVD and photo book today. Thank you so much for holding these group orders. <3 Alicia

We’re really happy to hear that! Thank you for joining our group orders!! n___n We hope you enjoy your photobook. 

[skai-light]

Hi, are you planning to open orders for mcf fantasy sniper or mr. destiny off the wall? ^^

Hi anon! We announced it on our twitter several days ago but I forgot to reply to your message here as well, I'm sorry. Despite the fact that we want the photobook and we know that there is enough interest for it, we decided that we simply don't have the time irl to properly run a group order for Mr. Destiny's "Off the Wall" photobook. ;n; We are also not opening a group order for Melted Cheese Fantasy's "Fantasy Sniper." 

[skai-light]

Hello, would you be able to tell me an estimate of how much EMS will be for the iridescent boy pb? thank you!

At 6 people in the group order, EMS will be $162 for a total of around $77 per person/set! Hope that helps! 

[skai-light]

Can I ask how you calculated the $81 for the MPST first payment? I have $48 (set) + $29.1 (EMS). If I were to send this amount directly to the fansite, paypal fees would be around $2.54 which still wouldn't total $81, which makes me think that the $81 doesn't only include the group paypal fee but also the paypal fee from us to you as well (in which case we wouldn't have to check 'pay paypal fees')? Thank you in advance for clarifying for us. ^^;

Thanks for your. I’m happy to explain this to you :) The price difference is basically the Paypal fee!

I don’t know how familiar you are with Paypal, but Paypal charges a fee (a percentage of the total amount of money being sent) when money is being sent internationally. When we pay the fansite, we get charged that international fee because we are in the U.S. and the fansite is in Korea.

Furthermore, in Paypal, there are two different payment methods or options. One of them is called “Send money to family and friends” and the other is “Pay for goods and services,” which are pretty self-explanatory. When you choose to send money using the family & friends option, Paypal charges a much lower fee. When you send money to a seller/vendor (the goods & services option), the fee is much higher. It’s how Paypal makes money. When you buy stuff online and pay for it by Paypal, you are using the goods & services option. You don’t realize Paypal is charging a fee because usually the seller/vendor covers it, and you pay no fee. However, with fansites, they make us, the buyer, pay the Paypal fee. You’ll often see in their photobook notices that they say things like, “Make sure you pay the Paypal fee!!!”

Mary and I at Skailight almost always pay fansites via the goods & services option. On the other hand, most other group orders choose the friends & family option to avoid the higher fee; therefore, they are able to charge less money than us for the same good. If we were to use the friends & family option, we would be able to charge the same price as the other group orders.

So why do we not choose the cheaper option? The key advantage of paying with the goods & services option is that Paypal offers buyer protection. In the case that the vendor (i.e., in this case, the fansite) fails to deliver the goods that we pay for, we can file a claim with Paypal and have Paypal either settle the dispute for us with the vendor/fansite or refund us. It’s an insurance. As you may have heard, fansites are sometimes very untrustworthy on whether they produce and deliver the goods they put on sale. In case that happens, we would like to at least have the option of getting some of our money back from Paypal, because the fansite would never refund us; they just take the money and run. With the friends & family option, there is no buyer protection, so if you pay a fansite via friends & family, sure, you pay less, but you also might be risking a lot.

You might be asking, but how can I tell Skailight is actually using the goods & services option? After we pay the fansite, we are always willing to show the Paypal receipt upon request, proving that we not only paid the fansite, but also that we used the goods & services option and are not pocketing the “extra” money. The receipt shows exactly how much we paid, how much is taken for the Paypal fee, and how much the fansite actually receives after the fee is deducted. I’ve attached an old receipt for one of our past group orders to show you what I mean — this one was for our group order for Spunky Action Baby’s “LOVEHATE” photobook. Notice the ~$30 fee deducted. The fee would only be that high if we used the goods & services option. You’ll notice (below) that the goods & services fee for MPST is going to be around ~$30 too.

I can also show you how we reached the calculation for $81 per MPST set:

10 photobooks in the group order * $48 per photobook = $480 EMS for 10 photobooks (using MPST’s EMS table) = $291 Subtotal = 480 + 291 = $771

Now we need to add the Paypal fee. I’ve attached screenshots that show Paypal calculating how much the fees are for each option so you know where I’m getting the numbers from (I didn’t take a screenshot of the whole screen since it shows my personal information, so I cropped most of the screen out, I hope you understand ;;): Screenshot: 1 / 2 / 3

Friends & family option:

Paypal fee = $3.86

Total = $771 + $3.86 = $774.86 

Total per person = $774.86 / 10 people = $77.49

Goods & services option:

Paypal fee = $31.60

Total = $771 + $31.60 = $802.60 

Total per person = $802.60 / 10 people = $80.26 

Thus you see how we get $81. You can also see from the screenshots that, either way, MPST still receives $771 and not a cent more.

Mary and I were actually wondering if we should drop the Paypal fee on this group order since MPST has proven themselves to be trustworthy in the past… but we haven’t really reached a decision yet. I know some of our regular customers definitely do prefer paying the extra Paypal fee just to be safe. One of our past group orders has turned out to be a dud (Eat You Up), and we never got our money back because we weren’t able to file a claim with Paypal for it. As I’ve shown above, the goods & services fee is usually around $30, which divided among 10 people is only an extra $3 per person for buyer protection, which is not terribly expensive — we’ll “lose out” on the extra $3 if we never use the buyer protection, but we’d lose out on $70-80 if we find ourselves cheated by the fansite and have no buyer protection. Thus, Mary and I have always thought it is worth it to err on the side of caution — though we are open to your opinions if you think we shouldn’t worry about Paypal protection anymore!

Very sorry for the long-winded answer. But I hope this helps!

[skai-light]

depending on price, i'd totally be on board with a new Mr. Destiny. Also, what is the first payment price for MPST?

Thanks for your interest! 

The first payment price for MPST's $81! It is listed on the order form. 

[skai-light]

Will you girls be doing a group order for Mr Destiny's new photobook?

Hello! We are considering it and will make a decision on it very soon. Just worried there won’t be enough interest in it! Can you guys let us know if you would order with us if we opened a group order? (Drop us a message, like this post, reply to this post, etc etc) Thank you! 

[skai-light]

i saw the tweet of kaiwaiilulu selling her fansite merch, does that mean your group orders won't be as frequent anymore?

To be truthful with you, we have each been scaling back a bit on buying photobooks. We are still active/open, but group orders may not be as frequent as they used to be.