Hey guys, thanks so much for all the support here! It really means the world to me! Thanks for backing :)
I've tried to be as transparent as possible. I really researched all of the associated costs with rewards, with packaging, and of course with shipping - this in particular was a hard thing to plan out, since to cater for every single country is extremely difficult. Shipping from the UK, internationally has always been quite pricey. With the thickness of the magazine, it's actually almost like a book, along with the other included extras and packaging, and a weight limit of <750g, it is almost impossible to keep the shipping costs down. I researched these costs, UK is simple since I can send the package tracked for just under £5. For Europe it jumps up to just under £14, and for the Rest of the World, this is where it starts getting a little variable. For Japan, the shipping was just over £20, for USA it was just over £22, and for Australia it was just over £23. Too keep everything as fairly priced as I could I made sure to make it a flat rate of £20 for everyone, so some countries are even saving money on the shipping. This will included tracking info to avoid risk of loss, which will ultimately allow us to avoid any unfortunate hiccups! I almost considered Economy shipping, but for the price difference of around £7, the delivery time could be up to 12 weeks! I didn't want backers to wait for the best part of 3 months waiting, and to avoid damage to the packaging from 3 months out of my hands, it wasn't worth the risk for a new creator like myself.
I really hope you guys understand that i'm really sorry for international buyers, I intend to make no profit from this project, which I hope is reflected in the defined manufacturing costs on the kickstarter page, which have been meticulously calculated, and ultimately allow all of these items, including signed prints to and from Eric Kelso for him to sign, for £15 total is a great deal! - albeit the international shipping!
Anyways, thanks again guys! The Shenmue World forum here was added in the hopes that you could share some of your fantastic hard Shenmue work with me for future issues. Everything submitted will be considered, and whatever fits and works well for that Issue, i'll let you know and we can share your work to the world....the....Shenmue World! :)