Q: How fast do you ship?
Almost all orders get shipped-out by the end of the next business day, which is within 24 hours unless it's a weekend.
Q: How do I get gift-wrap or add a custom message? And I don't want an invoice in the box!
Gift invoice: There is never an invoice in the box so you don't have to select anything to get no-invoice. If they need to return it, they just email us and we'll know which order it is.
Short Custom Message: you can add a short custom message of up to 30 characters for free yourself as the 2nd line on the shipping address. Examples:
- Happy BDay Love Your Bro (= 24 characters)
- From The Wilisons (= 17 characters)
Long Custom Message: add our custom gift message product for $2 to your order and enter your message here and we'll print it and ship it in your order.
Gift wrap: add our gift wrap product to your order once, and we will gift wrap all the puzzles in your order for $5. Gift wrap comes with a free "From X" tag where X is the name on the billing address.
Q: How much is shipping in the USA?
You get 2 shipping options at check-out:
Free Shipping (for all US addresses) typically uses USPS Retail Ground or UPS Ground service or better, and arrives with high probability in:
- 1-5 days if you are on the West Coast
- 3-7 days if you are Midwest-ish
- 4-10 days if you are on the East Coast
Priority shipping arrives with high probability in:
- 1-3 days if you are on the West Coast
- 2-4 days if you are Midwest
- 2-5 days if you are on the East Coast
- May be longer due to weather, mishaps, etc.
Priority shipping means your order goes to the front of our order-handling queue, and then we ship it usually with USPS Priority, but we may use UPS 2nd Day Air or another USPS or UPS shipping service that is expected to arrive in 2 days. The cost for priority shipping is:
- $8 for orders up to $50 (1 small puzzle)
- $12 for orders $50-$70 (1 medium puzzle)
- $15 for orders $70 to $300 (1 big puzzle)
- $20 for orders $300 to $600
- $25 for orders over $600
Q: Do you ship internationally?
Yes. For orders to these countries you can ship on our website and it will charge you one flat shipping fee for your entire order:
- Canada: flat $30 USD shipping fee (any size order)
- Western Europe: flat $40 USD shipping fee (any size order)
- Australia/NZ/Japan/Taiwan/Malaysia/Singapore: flat $50 USD shipping fee (any size order)
For other countries, please email us at artifactpuzzles@gmail.com to see if we can arrange delivery to you.
International shipments usually take 10-20 days. We ship USPS Economy International to all countries except Australia, for which we use UPS.
Your government may charge additional import duties and taxes that we cannot control. We hear that the UK charges a 20% VAT tax on any orders of over 135 pounds in puzzles (shipping doesn't count to it).
Q: Can I upgrade my order to priority shipping after I placed the order?
Yes, if it hasn't shipped yet. Just email us right away at people@artifactpuzzles.com and we'll add the extra fast shipping to your order and send you an invoice to pay for it.
- Orders are processed as quickly as possible after they are placed, usually within two business days. Unforeseeable circumstances, such as hurricanes, may lead to delays, both in order processing and shipment.
Q: Do you guys sell gift cards?
Yes! You can buy digital gift cards in any amount $3 and up. Gift cards are delivered by email and contain instructions to redeem them at checkout. Our gift cards have no additional processing fees, and have no expiration date. Gift cards can be used for credit with the Hoefnagel Puzzle Club as well.
Q: What is the difference between the Ecru puzzle line and your standard Artifact Puzzles?
Our Ecru puzzles are our "luxury line":
- Ecru puzzles have matte images, so less glare, but less bright
- Ecru puzzle pieces are a little closer-cut together, for a more beautiful experience.
- Ecru puzzles are more expensive because they are harder to make.
Q: We're missing a piece or a piece is broken - can you help?
Usually yes! If you are missing a piece the first time you do a puzzle, we will be happy to replace it for free.
If you've had the puzzle for a while, or know it's your fault (dog-chewed piece?), we have to ask you to pay $15 to cover the costs of re-making the piece and shipping it to you - just buy our piece replacement here, then send us an email with the photo and address.
Email us (at people@artifactpuzzles.com) a photo of the completed puzzle so we can see which piece is missing. We'll try to re-create the piece for you as best we can, and send it to you at any US address. Usually takes 5-14 days to get to you, and usually you can't tell it's a replacement piece unless you look really close.
Q: Can I cancel my order?
Yes if your order isn't already shipped-out. Email us at people@artifactpuzzles.com, please give us the order number! If your order is already shipped-out, you can still return un-opened puzzles (see below).
Q: Can I change the shipping address on an order I already placed?
Yes if your order isn't already shipped-out. Email us at people@artifactpuzzles.com.
Q: Can I return my order?
We are happy to accept returns of un-opened puzzles, at any point in time. Email us to let us know, and we'll give you the address to ship it back. (We can't pay for shipping unless we made some kind of error, but we'll refund or replace the full puzzle.)
If you need to return a puzzle you've already opened, contact us and we'll figure out how we can help on a case-by-case basis.
Q: How do I add puzzles to my wish list?
As-of December 27, 2024, we no longer have a wishlist functionality, so sorry! We hope to bring it back in the coming months.
Q: The puzzle I want says it's SOLD OUT, when will it be back in stock?
If a puzzle says SOLD OUT, it will be back in-stock eventually, but it could be many moons.
For most out-of-stock puzzles, there will be a link at the top of the description that says "Sign-up to get an email once in-stock".
Some puzzles marked "sold out" are actually still in the design-phase, the way to tell is look if it's on our Coming Soon page, if yes, it could be many months before we actually get it in stock.
If you really badly want a particular puzzle back in stock soon or need it by a particular date, please email us at people@artifactpuzzles.com and we'll see what we can do.
Q: Where are your puzzles made?
Our puzzles are made in charming Port Townsend, Washington ("a Victorian Seaport" a couple hour ferry ride from Seattle), and before 2022 our puzzles were made in Fremont, California (part of "Silicon Valley", which is about 45 minutes southeast of San Francisco if the traffic is light, which it never is). From 2013-2019, our puzzles were made in Menlo Park, California (also in "Silicon Valley"). Before October 2013, all our puzzles were made in Seattle, Washington.
Q: What ages do you recommend your puzzles for?
We recommend our puzzles for adults and teens who are 15 years or older.
Be warned that puzzle pieces are a choking hazard. And keep puzzle pieces away from dogs who enjoy chewing on them! Also, some of our puzzles have some sharp points.
Some of our puzzle images have cartoon nudity, fine art nudity, skeletons, cartoon violence, fine art violence, or characters smoking, and these depictions may not be welcome or appropriate for all puzzlers. If we know an image has any such content, we warn you in the product description for that puzzle, and try to show zoomed-in photos of that imagery. Please use your own judgment regarding each image and puzzler if you are gifting.
Q: What kind of wood do you use?
We use plywood for strength and flexibility. Our plywood is Columbia Forest Product's PureBond formaldehyde-free maple plywood (USA, FSC-certified). (Technical notes: "formaldehyde-free plywood means there is no formaldehyde in the glue; however, wood itself has a small amount of naturally-occuring formaldehyde in it that no one knows how to remove.)
Q: How thick is the wood you use?
We use American 1/4" plywood. Note American plywood is described as 1/4" thick but it is really more like 7/32" thick, it's a wood industry quirk.
Q: What's a "whimsy piece"?
Pieces that are specially shaped are called whimsy pieces. Many of our puzzles contain "figurative whimsy pieces" that are recognizable as something; for example, the Tyukanov Moon Puzzle has pieces shaped like a Boeing 747, an astronaut, a kite, a waterplane, a hawk, etc. Some of our puzzles instead only have special decorative pieces, like Renoir Oarsmen or the Dennis Brady. We also offer extra-hard puzzles without any whimsy or special pieces, and where the connectors are the same so that you really have to pay attention to the image such as our Hokusai Dragon, Bundi Miniature, Deccan Miniature, and Ong Khan puzzles.
Q: What are Mystery Puzzles? Can I buy them with the label on the box?
Our Mystery Puzzles are meant to provide an extra fun challenge by not telling you what the image is. You can read all about them on our Mystery Puzzles page.
Q: Would you make a custom puzzle for me?
Generally we don't do custom puzzles. Only if you're interested in ordering at least 250 puzzles. Email people@artifactpuzzles.com for pricing. If you are a museum/gallery/artist interested in working with us to design a puzzle using a particular art piece or artist, feel free to pitch us your idea at people@artifactpuzzles.com.
Q: How do I contact you guys?
Email us at people@artifactpuzzles.com (or artifactpuzzles@gmail.com, both email addresses are received the same). Our median response time is 4 hours. We do all customer service via email.
Q: If I place 2 orders to the same address in a short time window, do I need to tell you to merge them into one shipment?
You do not need to contact us. If you place a 2nd order to the same address (and same name) before we ship the first order, we automatically merge the two orders into one package to save shipping costs.