*CURRENTLY UNABLE TO SHIP TO THE EU and UK* Please use one of the following forwarding shipping services if you are from these countries and would like to purchase my merchandise:

• Fishisfast (fish is fast)
• Opas
• Stackry - this one is known to be popular among UK customers 😊
• Planet express
• Postscan mail
• MyUS
• Shipito

--- Shipping and Address Changes ---

USPS Ground Advantage mail is used to ship all items. The exception being certain pins or items I see that are highly coveted, high value multi-item orders, or orders that will have a large weight,  those will be shipped via USPS Priority Mail. Both Ground Advantage and Priority Mail come with insurance automatically. If you'd like to add more Insurance, please toggle ON the Route Package Protection option visible at checkout- this protects your package in case it is marked as 'Delivered' via USPS but still has not shown up. As if it is marked as Delivered, the USPS is unable to help.

All items and come with a tracking number. Address changes will be requested via an email sent out to all preorder buyers once the pin arrives In-Hand, and/or requested in the corresponding Commitment/Priority groups, saying the pins have arrived from the manufacturer. Please provide any address changes within 48 hours of the announcement that the pins are in hand. 

Any In-Hand items are usually shipped out within 1 week of the order date, but please understand shipping time can take up to 2 weeks for an in hand item. Please feel free to email or message me with any questions about the shipping time of In-Hand items if they have not been shipped after 2 or more weeks.

If you are concerned about your order getting lost, please add Route Insurance to your order at checkout (there should be a small toggle button to add it) As while USPS Ground Advantage comes with automatic Insurance, a package is not insured if it as marked as 'Delivered' but the customer never actually received it. Route Insurance will however cover your order, in that case.

Pease be aware if the product is out of stock, that it may not be possible to replace it. In that case, I can offer another form of compensation, such as offering a refund or different piece of merchandise.

If a package appears to have gone missing, please email me as soon as possible so I may help resolve the issue.

If no Route insurance was added and the package says 'Delivered', but the package has still not shown up, I can only help to replace the items once- if no insurance is added a second time and the same instance occurs, I cannot replace the items free of charge a second time. This is because of those looking to take advantage of my kindness, I can only offer to help if no insurance is chosen one time in this specific instance.

If you are not sure if I can help or not, please email me anyways! I am always willing to do my best to make sure the customer is satisfied and may be able to provide assistance even if it may not appear I can do so at first glance.

 

Combining Orders: I am unable to combine orders for my shop unless it is an International Order (any order shipped outside the United States) 

If a customer has placed multiple orders that have yet to be shipped, unfortunately I am not able to combine orders and refund shipping. Due to the magnitude of orders I receive, this becomes too time consuming and complicated for me to manage.

HOWEVER- I am able to do so for International orders only, due to the expensive shipping cost. For international customers, I am able to combine orders and refund the extra shipping on orders placed close together that have not shipped yet, if I am emailed with order numbers and the request to do so.

Wrong Address Entered by Mistake: If a customer entered the wrong address by mistake, please email me immediately with the correct address- if this is done before the item is shipped, there should be no issue at all. However if the item is already shipped out and has left my possession, 2 options may be able to be done:

1) Contact me as soon as possible so I can re-route the package back to me, and send it out again to them.

2) If it is too late for a package interception, I may be able to send a replacment pin/item, as I usually save a few extras

For both instances, if the package is sent back to me and needs to be sent out again, or the package is lost and I am sending a replacement, the customer pays the shipping fee once more. This is because as a small business, shipping adds up quickly, and it is difficult to take a shipping cost loss due to a customer's mistake. Thank you!

---GRADING---

Each enamel pin is made with love by hand, not mass produced by machines. As a result minor to major errors are bound and expected to happen. Please read below what each category means regarding pin presentation.

Please note that often times pins are unlikely to have highly visible flaws. These descriptions are just to cover all my bases so customers know what to expect, as it never hurts to be too careful! In general though, most pins look very good at arms length, displayed on a board, or in an ita bag.

• A Grade: The pin is as close to flawless as possible, but that does not mean it is flawless. It may contain minor beauty marks that do not hinder it’s overall aesthetics. This includes but not limited to: light scuffs, dings/dents, pin pricks, dust specks, minor screen print errors , wobbly back posts, wiggling pin on pin, plating issues on the sides not visible from the front, bent back posts, scratched backs, or any errors at all prevalent on the back of a pin. Anything with special effects has a higher chance of containing minor issues such as uneven glitter specks, small dark areas in glow in the dark, bubbles in the stain glass or glittered areas, and so forth. Essentially, these pins may contain minor flaws, but when held at arms length they are not obviously visible. If the flaw cannot be easily spotted at arms length, or if a pin needs to be tilted in the light in order to see flaws, it is considered an A grade according to my policies.

 

• B Grade: The pin may have some minor flaws visible to the eye, but nothing taking away from thebpin's overall asthetic value. These include small scuff marks, larger pin pricks, under filled enamel areas, air bubbles in regular hard enamel, under and overfilled enamel, misplaced enamel, screen printed errors, visible plating areas on the front or sides, and anything else mentioned above in standard grading. These pins will may have noticeable flaws at arms length, but it is unlikely. They will NOT contain any face flaws.

 

• C Grade: The pin may have major flaws visible to the eye, and are more likely to contain face flaws (but not always). These include heavily scratched areas, deep pin pricks, missing screen print, missing enamel, wrongly colored enamel, and anything else mentioned in A and B grading.

 

• D Grade: D Grade pins may have flaws even more noticeable than C grade pins, such as missing or different screen print, large and highly notable flaws such as face flaws, pin pricks, smudged screen print, scratches, missing enamel chuncks, and anything else mentioned in A, B, or C grading. For D grade pins since the flaws are more noticeable than C grade, I will be posting pictures of the type of flaws you can expect on these pins in the store listing itself. D Grades may not sell with the initial drop but may sometimes sell as suprise drops announced in my Instagram or Discord, but will still only sell through my website.

● Please be aware when purchasing ●  Unless one is willing to wait, please do not order an in hand pin with a presale pin. Please place them in separate orders, as I cannot mark the order as shipped until all pins are in hand, which may take several months before the presale pins arrive.

 ---REFUNDS---

There are no refunds or exchanges for B, C, or D graded pins. 

If you feel something is wrong with an A grade pin, feel free to email or dm with pictures (@pastelshootingstar on Instagram or Shootingstarpins@gmail.com) and it will be decided from there if a mistake was made and a refund or exchange will be given. The buyer pays return shipping for both a refund or exchange unless the mistake was a fault of my own (as I am usually the only one grading my pins, sometimes the occasional pin does fall through the cracks and is marked as an A grade when it is not). I must receive the pin first before a refund is given or an exchange is sent out. Please know exchanges may not always be possible as we may not have any A graded pins left. Exchanges will only be shipped once I receive the exchanged pin. Refunds or exchange requests will only be honored within one week of the buyer having received the pin. I have the right to deny any request for a refund or exchange, and refunds/exchanges are reviewed on a case by case basis. 

No International exchanges:  Unfortunately because of shipping costs, I cannot offer international exchanges, unless the buyer is willing to pay the return shipping both to and from me. This policy has to be made as I am a small business and it is difficult to take a large shipping cost loss. Thank you for your understanding.

Presale Refunds: Normally, there are no refunds for presales unless extenuating circumstances arise. In that case, it will be at my discretion to offer or refuse the refund. Buyer's remorse is not an appropriate reason for a refund, as presales are necessary to fund the pin's production. Please be absolutely certain about buying a presale, as it is a commitment, and colors and effects are subject to change from the art, though I'll do my best to match the art as closely as possible. The only time I will ever be issuing a refund on a presale with no questions asked is if the pin had to be fully canceled, or did not get enough presale spots within the allotted time period. 

If one is seriously unsatisfied with how a pin turned out that you preordered with me, I can issue a refund, as I want to make sure customers can still feel secure in their purchase. If a refund on a presale is requested for this reason, I please ask that the customer not place any further orders on preorders for the next 4 months however. Thank you!

Please know a design will often have slight differences when going from the art to pin form. Small details and shading are often not always able to be replicated on an enamel pin. By buying a presale you acknowledge that while the pin will be made to look as accurate to the art as possible, there will be asthetic and nessesairy changes made, such as color changes or the deletion of certain details and shading, or different effects used than what was specified in the presale if needed (say one effect didn't look as planned or the factory was not able to do it for some reason) 

Pins are made using Pantone colors, which are extremely limited, so please be aware when purchasing some colors may not look exactly like the art, though I will do my best to match them as closely as possible. If you are too unsure about how a pin design will look once completed, please only buy in-hand pins, not presales. Thank you

Presales can take anywhere from 3-6 months to complete normally depending on size, effects and quantity, but can sometimes take up to 8 or 9 months depending on the pin's complexity or if issues/delays arise. Though a pin taking that long is abnormal, it is not impossible, and if buying a presale one needs to be prepared to wait that amount of time if the need arises.

Accidental Orders/Buyers remorse/Wanting to Cancel an Order: If one makes a purchase by mistake and buys an item they don't want by accident/or wants to cancel an order for any reason, I am happy to refund, however there will be a $5 restocking fee per item in the order. For lower cost items like stickers (or any item costing $5 or lower) there will be a $1 restocking fee per sticker/item. The $5 restocking fee applies to all other items in the store as well, not limited to only pins. If one demands a full refund for an accidental order/buyer's remorse and refuses to accept the restocking fee, they will be given a full refund for all outstanding orders and presales and will be banned from all future purchases from my store.

The reason for this is due to the fee Paypal/payment processors charges for each transaction, that money is permanently taken even in the event of a refund, so otherwise I end up being the one paying for these mistakes when they happen. Thank you for understanding. 

Buyers remorse is not an appropriate reason for a refund, as I am a small business and it is important one is absolutely certain they want an item before buying. If a refund for an item is requested more than once by the same customer, they will be permanently banned from purchasing from my shop. I cannot continously give out refunds, and by the same customer requesting a refund twice, they have proven to be unreliable and too much of a risk to continue selling to. 

If a customer files a paypal or card dispute/chargeback without having sent me any form of email or message/communication first, depending on how many outstanding orders they have, they may be immediately refunded for all of them and banned from my store/blocked from my page and from making future purchases. If what they ordered is close to being shipped, I will ship their item first and then refund any other orders, before blocking them rom future purchases. I will try to reach out first to them before this happens so we can resolve the issue, as it is possible a customer was unaware they should reach out first- but please know it is entirely inppropriate to file a chargeback against a small business without at all trying to reach out first. I have many channels of communication, ranging from email, Instagram messages, Discord, and Patreon. There is no reason to not at least make an atempt at communication, and I always respond within 48 hours, but often it is even much sooner than that.

• For example- If one is worried a pin is taking too long that was preorderd, we can work something out, such as a refund and early access for them to purchase it in hand of they wish- as I want all customers to feel comfortable purchasing from me. But if one simply files a charge back with no form of communication, I cannot comfortably continue selling to that customer, as I cannot sell to someone who does not wish to communicate with me if issues arise.

 

 FAQ

--- How do I buy your pins? And how to Presales work? ---

At the begining of every month, I post a calendar post with a break down of all the sales that will take place that month! So please feel free to look for the calendar post on my Instagram page to see what will be selling that month, and what time the sales will take place.

Generally, I will have a combination of public presales and In-Hand sales taking place each month, and all sales are done here through my shop! Please know Presale pins will always have the best deal price wise, as they are helping me to fund production. The price will go up once the remaining stock of pins arrive in hand for public sale. Some presales will be unlimited for a certain amount of time, while others will just have a limited amount of spots! I always specify the details about each pin drop, both In-Hand and Presale wise, on my Calendar post and on my Instagram stories- in addition, any information about upcoming drops for that week are saved in my Countdowns highlight, as well as in the Shop-Drops channel on my Discord. 

⭐Please also know that limited presales will always be very limited stock! Usually only about 30% or less of the total LE is being sold, as the presales are just to help me fund a pin's production. But even if you miss a Presale, don't worry! You'll have a much higher chance to buy the pin once its in hand, as that is when the majority of the stock will sell.

- So for example, if a pin is LE 150 pieces, and there are 30 presale spots- then 120 of the pins will be available when in hand to those who missed the presale. There will ALWAYS be in hand sales available to the public for all of my pins, including Patreon pins! Though of course, Patreons get first dibs on all Patreon In Hand sales.

There may be some days on the calendar that are private groups- those are Commitment or Priority groups, and if you would like to know more about what those groups are and how they work, feel free to scroll down to the next question where I have an explanation those!

 

--- What is a Priority/Commitment group? ---

Private Instagram groups are ways many pin makers do business, as it allows us to have a dedicated group of investors/buyers who will fund the pin's production and the entire series over time. For the buyer's benefit, it is a way for them to have a guaranteed pin with the lower presale price, without the worry of being cart swiped during a public sale.

Priority/Commitment groups are always formed via Instagram post. There will be a set amount of spots available, and in order to gain a spot, one needs to be one of the first to comment. For example, if there are 15 spots available, one needs to be one of the first 15 to comment in order to make it into the group. There are no code words for the formation of my groups (though other pin creators may do this) and just typing the word "Me" is fine. If someone drops out of the group, I will be going down the list of comments to the next person who commented and ask if they would like to join, and so on.

Prices per pin are always announced beforehand, so the buyer will be aware of what they are committing to.

Payment times for Groups can vary, sometimes it is once every other month, and sometimes I will like to wait until the pervious pin has almost finished production or is already finished before preselling the next in a series.

• Commitment Groups: A commitment group is a group of people who really love the idea of a series, and want to join the group because they want every new pin in that series, even if they haven't seen all the designs yet. In these groups, buyers are committing to buying an entire set of pins, for my policies, that usually means at least 6, but may be more or less depending on the series. After the first 6, or however many there are in the first set, they have the option to either leave the group, or stay and commit to the next set of characters. 

• Priority Groups: These groups are formed the same way commitment groups are, however instead of a commitment, the buyer given priority. This means a buyer should still be interested in buying at least 2 if not 3 of the designs in a series in order to join the group, but does not have to buy all the designs in the series. If its a very desired preorder, that group may take up all the preorder spots for that design. But if some members of the priority group pass, the remaining presale spots go to the public.

For questions regarding refunds in groups, please refer to the Presale Refunds policy. 

 

If an extension on payment is needed within a Priority or Commitment group, I am more than happy to give one, I just need honest communication. If I see I am being ghosted or strung along regarding payment, a deadline will be given, and if it is not met then one will be removed from the group, and not be allowed to join any presale groups for the next 4 months.

If one asks to leave a presale group before the first season/set of pins is over, they will be removed from the group, and not be allowed to join any future commitment/priority groups for the next 4 months. Thank you for understanding.

These Priority/Commitment groups are only to have a dedicated group of PRESALE buyers, where only about 30% of the stock is sold to them. There will ALWAYS be In-Hand sales available to the public for ALL of my pin designs of the rest of the stock.

Incoming Patreon pins will also eventually be available to the public, if they are not all sold out by Patreons within the first few months Patreons have access to them.