TOPIC: Etsy Restock / First time order question

Hi all,

I'm getting ready to order my first saber and I have a few questions. My apologies if this has been asked and answered before. I tried the search function but wasn't able to find an answer.

I want to order a 12w+ Green Champion Prodigal Son. The issue is I have a bunch of prepaid Visa gift cards in various amounts totaling almost enough to get the champion edition. I contacted Saberforge via email and was informed that they do not accept multiple forms of payment/split payment.

I noticed that the Etsy store accepts Etsy gift cards, and from what I've been reading regarding Etsy gift cards it sounds like I could use my prepaid Visa cards to buy multiple Etsy gift cards, which get redeemed and added to your account balance. This loophole would allow me to use up most of my prepaid gift cards towards a saberforge order.

However, the Prodigal Son is currently not listed on Etsy. Does anyone know if Saberforge restocks the Etsy listings for regular production models on a fairly regular basis? A few of my gift cards expire soon. I keep checking the store but haven't seen any new items added recently.

Also, on a somewhat related note, I've been reading about the new Sabercore 3.0 soundboard. Most of the posts reference a late summer/early fall release. Has anyone heard any more about this recently? I'm debating ordering one now with the Viridium soundboard vs. waiting for the new board. Custom sound fonts are not that big a deal to me, but in videos I've seen of the Viridium the ignition/hum/clash sounds all sound great. But the blaster bolt deflect sounds like an ATAT firing. If the new board would let me load a more accurate sound font that'd be rad, but not if its going to take another 6 months to come out. Sorry for the long post, and appreciate any info you guys might have. Thanks!

There isn't a set schedule for when/if certain sabers are put on etsy, though when ASP come out and things settle down a bit they should start restocking their page. The Prodigal Son is a pretty popular saber though, so there's a good chance that it'll be available. The Prodigal Son's parts are available through the ASP system, so there's another option.

As for the Sabercore 3.0 boards, there's currently not an ETA, once again due to ASP and the huge influx of orders they were slammed with do to the new movie coming out. If you would really like this board but don't want to wait, you could always buy an empty or warrior level hilt and have it upgraded later.

On the subject of your prepaid cards, if I remember correctly, you should be able to add the balance to your papal wallet(I know Etsy accepts PayPal, not sure about the main site though). Might be an alternative if they are about to expire. SaberForge also offers gift certificates, but they're a bit convoluted in the way you redeem them.

I also noticed you want the 12w+ LED. At the moment there isn't a place to select this on either the website or etsy, so make sure to put that you want this in your order notes.

Thank you for the reply! I figured the ASP launch was probably causing a delay with re-stocking Etsy as well as the Sabercore 3.0 launch.

With Paypal there's no way to add the prepaid Visa balance to your Paypal balance. You can use it as a credit card through paypal, but only if the total is less than the amount on the card.

The workaround I found relates to how Etsy processes their own gift cards. Basically when you redeem and Etsy gift card, it adds the balance of that card to your main account gift card balance (basically it pools all your Etsy gift cards into one shared balance). This way I should be able to use the multiple prepaid Visa cards I have to buy Etsy gift cards in varying amounts, and add them all to my Etsy balance, which would go a long way towards paying for the Champion tier Prodigal Son with 12w upgrade.

I saw in the FAQ about how to add a 12w+ LED, so I'll be sure to do that when I order. I assume I'll need to pay for the normal 12w upgrade ($30) as well as the 12w+ upgrade on top of that ($25). Does that sound right? Now I'm just debating between ordering it as soon as the PS is re-listed on Etsy, or waiting a few months until the 12w+ upgrade is only $5 and perhaps the Sabercore 3.0 board will be out by then. The board isn't that big of a deal, but it'd be cool to be able to mess around with different sound fonts. Mainly the blaster deflect is the only thing I don't like on the Viridium board.

So far the only sabers I own are an old Parks "EL" saber with no sound, and a few of the Master Replicas Force FX (non-removable blades.)

The Saberforge hilts are so dang cool looking. I've always wanted a ROTJ Luke saber, and didn't buy the MR version because of how janky the fat neck looked. That said the Redeemer also looks very cool. Thought about ordering one in weathered finish to look like the ANH version, but after looking at the upcoming releases post I see there's a more accurate version coming out. I'm also really keen to see how the Graflex models look once they launch. I recently ordered a Parks Graflex ESB (sadly right after he jacked the price up by $50 due to TFA demand) just because I've always wanted an accurate Graflex hilt for display. Sorry for the long-winded post, and thanks again for getting back to me.

There is no way to pay for anything on Etsy with prepaid cards. Even buying Etsy gift certificates or Etsy cards is impossible. I went through this very thing last week, as I had tried multiple times in vain. At first it looks like Etsy uses the card, even giving you an order number...but then you get an e-mail stating it has been voided. It's part of their terms of service, and It's a giant pain in the rear end. The only option you have is a work around involving adding your address to the cards via your bank or Paypal, and then using those funds in Etsy or the online store. Look up the phrase "adding visa gift cards to Paypal" on Google and see for yourself.

I wound up just buying through Etsy with my Payal bank account and using the gift cards to pay for gas and other daily expenses.

Hope that saves you some time and frustration.

-Bossman

Thanks for the info Bossman. I will check out their terms of service. For the prepaid visa cards I have, most allow you to change the billing address so you can use them to shop online. I work in retail and the main reason we decline cards is if the billing address doesn't match.

I'll also see if there's a way to add them to the PayPal balance, but I don't know of any. I use PayPal every day at work. It uses any funds in your PayPal balance first, then defaults to your linked checking account for the balance unless you manually change it to a credit card. Even then it only lets you use one credit card on a transaction. Thanks again for the info. Was really hoping this was going to work.

Couldn't you go to one of those machines that lets you sell unused gift cards?

I've never heard of such a thing. Do you know where I might find one?

Erderich wrote:
Sorry for the late reply...I would check local grocery stores. I usually find them at safeway...if you have those where you are from.

Gotcha. I'll look out for those in the future. After discovering I couldn't use them to buy Etsy gift cards or to add money to PayPal via green dot I got fed up and just bought an Xbox instead since some of them expire soon. While I'd love to order a saber right now I think at this point I'll just hold off until the 12w+ upgrade is cheaper and the Sabercore 3.0 soundboards are released. Thanks everyone for all your help.

Hi all. I had one more question as it pertains to placing my order. If figured I'd just post it here instead of starting a whole new topic.

I see that the Prodigal Son has been re-stocked on ETSY. Am I correct that currently the main website has a shorter lead time than ETSY? I believe most recently it was 6-8 weeks for the website, 10-12 for ETSY. I'm a bit confused by this, as the way I understand it all ETSY listings are for items they have the parts ready to build them on hand, where website orders they may need to order components to build it.

Lastly, I'm still torn between ordering now with the Sabercore light-side soundboard, versus waiting until the Sabercore 3.0 boards are released. I doubt anyone has this info, but I like how the current Champion boards allow you to adjust the sensitivity via a menu. Given that the 3.0 boards are supposed to allow for at least one custom sound font, I was wondering if it will still have a menu for adjusting sensitivity, etc., or if it will all need to be done via the SD card or USB port like on other boards. This may influence my decision, as I like the simplicity of the current boards, but would love to be able to play around with different sound fonts.

Another option would be to order a Warrior tier PS, and send it in for an upgrade once the 3.0 boards are released. Does anyone know how an upgrade like this would cost? Is it the standard $150 difference between the Warrior and Champion tiers? Also, I know the Champion and Warrior 12W use different batteries. Would the Champion upgrade at a later date also change the battery? Any info you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Not sure about the SaberCore 3.0, because there is no new information available. However, on the wait time, Kyntiri did say that they had gotten the main site wait time down to 6-8 weeks, and that they were working getting the Etsy lead time shorter than that, but they were not there yet. They are two separate processes, and doing whatever it takes to optimize them is being done one at a time. Don't worry! Once they get to that point on Etsy as well, it will be announced here.