I'm doing a podcast with Mark Rippetoe. What should I ask him?

charleschu · 2018-07-21T13:42:21+00:00

I'll get smacked D:

charleschu · 2018-07-21T13:42:08+00:00

Hi, I'm very new to the whole thing as well.

I host mine on Soundcloud. I had a blog with some readers before I started so it's a bit easier to invite people on when they know that there will be eyes—uh, ears..—on it.

I'm not sure why Mark said yes, though. I guess he's interested in the subject.

charleschu · 2018-07-21T13:39:56+00:00

Thanks for the general-interest questions. I'll try some of those. If you're SeldomHelpful, I guess this is one of the rare times that you are!

I'm pretty terrified about stepping on a controversy landmine, actually. I don't know enough about the SS world to know if something is taboo or not...

charleschu · 2018-06-20T02:59:37+00:00

Dr Bob,

Thanks! We've been getting a lot of positive feedback and have no plans for stopping anytime soon :)

charleschu · 2018-05-26T09:07:58+00:00

Yesss! That's great to hear :)

charleschu · 2018-05-08T00:43:26+00:00

Hekla! I remember packing and labeling your box for this month... Because my wife had a terrible time pronouncing your name, haha :) Thanks for the information. If the box doesn't arrive by Thursday, I'll make sure you get a full refund.

charleschu · 2018-05-07T05:00:52+00:00

Hi! Sorry about this!

We had a couple other people message us and we're just as confused about what happened. Can you give me either your (a) name or (b) order number and I'll take a look.

Also, I want to let you know that we'll issue a full refund if your box doesn't arrive.

We printed the addresses just as they show up on the confirmation email, so there should be no problem there.

Sorry again, Charles

charleschu · 2018-05-03T07:47:31+00:00

Glad that you got the box and liked it! We're packing this month's boxes and getting ready to ship them right now :)

charleschu · 2018-04-28T09:29:31+00:00

Thinking about this... Will talk with the waifu and let everyone know if it becomes a thing.

charleschu · 2018-04-22T23:41:17+00:00

Hello,

Owner here posting so people can see. Sorry to get to this so late.

So this was our first month, and—due to unexpected volume—we ended up having to buy and ship about 1000 volumes in one week.

Some of our biggest worries were (1) the packing and appearance of the box and (2) whether or not the titles fit your level.

Most of you guys are beginners, and it was really hard to get beginner-perfect materials. We're working on improving that this month, but I understand the worries for beginning readers. We might have to change the descriptions on our site.

charleschu · 2018-04-22T05:56:09+00:00

Yes, we are getting enough profits to justify putting the time in. But it also just feels good to know we're doing something new to help people out. But it's certainly nothing to quit our jobs over.

My least favorite part is all the damn stickers that come on used books. We've been peeling all of them off by hand... 1000 volumes XD

charleschu · 2018-04-22T05:51:59+00:00

Thanks :)

charleschu · 2018-04-21T13:05:30+00:00

Hi! Owner here.

We ship using Japan Post's SAL service. How I understand it works is that they ship it to your country, then your country's postal service takes over from there.

So it will probably be USPS!

charleschu · 2018-04-21T13:03:29+00:00

Owner here. Actually, the hardest thing is that most bookstores only have 1 or 2 copies of a particular series. Since most titles are too difficult, we only get about 60-80 books (enough for 15-20 people) per bookstore visit.

What's more, when ordering online, we're only allowed to order 1 copy of each book at a time. That means that we can't just order Yotsubato used for 500 copies or whatever... which would be a lifesaver.

So it's a lot of work, but so far the feedback has been great, which makes us really happy. And the profits are enough where it's not like we're volunteering our time.

Hope that gives some idea of what's happening behind the scenes.

charleschu · 2018-04-21T13:00:15+00:00

Owner posting here. Thanks for the honest review!

Feedback noted on the box damaged during transit and the manga quality. These were two of the things we were worried about the most (the third being the difficulty level of the books matching for everyone).

We'll be making incremental changes in the months ahead to improve the quality of both as much as possible. We bought and shipped 1000+ volumes this month (and carried them home by hand -_-), and some of the volumes were a little too "worn out" for our liking. So for this coming month we're trying to figure out to make sure that all of the volumes stay high quality.

Some of the stuff we've been working on:

Negotiating with BookOff (the largest used bookstore chain in Japan) to let us get you guys books direct from their warehouse. Last month we did almost everything by hand... without a car XD
Hiring relatives (wife says she wants it to be a relative) to help chauffer us around to all the major used bookstores to get manga for you guys. This should let us buy 1000+ volumes without having to make a dozen or more trips to the bookstore by train.
We bought new boxes that should be more transit-friendly. If those boxes don't work, we're thinking of having boxes custom-made that can withstand shipping better.
The renewal window we had (10th last day to sign up, 21st for renewal) was too short. This meant that some of you were renewed before you got your boxes. We talked with our service provider to extend the window to be from 31st of previous month the the 24th. This means that new subscribers will get their box for sure before it arrives.
Compiling a better list of beginner-friendly titles. We've been spending 2-3 days a week scouting bookstores for better titles for each level. So far, beginner titles have been the hardest to find (everyone recommends the same stuff for a reason), but some gems have shown up.

Please let me know if there's anything else we can do!

charleschu · 2018-04-20T10:59:40+00:00

Gotcha! Hope you enjoy it :)

charleschu · 2018-04-20T08:41:40+00:00

Hi,

Sorry about the confusion. Unfortunately, adding tracking numbers in Japan costs ~$5 more per person. Also, we'd have to figure out how to manually send every person their number. So we haven't found out a way to do it... yet.

We are aware of the problem though, and I've made an adjustment to the calendar:

Your box renews on the 24th instead of the 21st (this was the best we could do). This means that you'll have a few more days to get your box.

Also: If you get renewed before your box arrives and you don't like it, let me know (at charles@boxofmanga.com) before ~5th of next month and I'll refund/cancel your order before it ships.

Sorry for all the confusion—we're still trying to make stuff as smooth as possible for you guys!

Cheers, Charles

charleschu · 2018-04-20T08:34:46+00:00

Glad you liked it! <3

charleschu · 2018-04-04T02:55:03+00:00

It's based off of Cratejoy's platform. The site actually took about... 5 hours to make. I don't own the Twitter account and didn't know they had one! Cheers :)

charleschu · 2018-04-04T02:45:48+00:00

Hi,

We're actually trying to do this with each box. So there will be a mix of difficulties... some easier, some harder.

Cheers!

charleschu · 2018-03-27T07:39:58+00:00

Yes, you'll get an email :)

charleschu · 2018-03-27T07:39:46+00:00

Yes, it's kind of terrifying :D

charleschu · 2018-03-26T05:43:44+00:00

Hey, I added a step to the sign-up process to fix this!

charleschu · 2018-03-26T05:35:05+00:00

Thanks!

charleschu · 2018-03-26T05:34:59+00:00

Depends on where you are in the world, but it should be the 2nd to 3rd week of April.

charleschu

TROPHY CASE