The Incredibly Frustrating Thing That Was the FairyLoot Fourth Wing Sale
Updated: Jun 30, 2023
***Edit!!! FairyLoot just announced today (30 June 2023) that a second, unsigned printing will be offered! See my Special Editions Calendar for all the deets!***
Well, FairyLoot had an early access sale for their exclusive edition of Fourth Wing today (21 June 2023). After all of the news I heard from UK and International beautiful bookish folk about the total dumpster fire that was the sale on the UK site, I had no doubts the sale would be SNAFU for those of us in the US and Canada.
No surprise. It was.
I put up a poll in my stories after checking out the FairyLoot site well before the sale went on in the US and Canada to find there was ALREADY A QUEUE but the sale hadn’t started. So I asked you if there were any early emails received.
Here’s what the poll results stated:
From all the accounts I’ve read, this sale for Fourth Wing has been incredibly frustrating for everyone and fraught with inconsistencies.
Let me just be up front.
I hate queues for Special Edition/Past Items Sales.
I don’t trust them.
I’ve NEVER been able to get a special edition or access a past item if the sale is on a queue system, despite getting the email on time, logging in ahead of time, and taking every precaution to make sure payment info is loaded, etcetera etcetera etcetera. (I was able to this time, so I’m not sure what happened there.)
And according to many, many replies, the email reception and sale in general was just all over the place.
Some got the email very late.
Some got the email early.
Some got it on time but had crazy wait times.
Some signed in early and got the email on time but still weren’t able to secure an order.
Some were with friends and signed in at the same time, got the email at the same time, and the wait times for each friend were vastly different. By hours.
Some waited in the queue for a couple of hours only to see the OUT OF STOCK button that had been there for a while.
The odd circumstances go on and on.
I know what FairyLoot’s stories have said about the wait time fluctuating, but my synapses are misfiring on that logic. Wait times should never go up. By hours. Which is what some people have told me they experienced.
I’m glad there’s a possibility that there will be a reprint. I’ve heard it won’t be signed. I hope it will be. I know I’ve caught some flack on social media (not necessarily Instagram) for complaining about no signatures in SE books, so at least those lovely folks won’t be put out by the lack of signature. Yes, that was snark.
All I can recommend is that every person with an experience like the ones I described or even remotely like the ones I described email the FairyLoot team and—very politely and professionally—relay to them your experience. A book sale should not be like winning the lottery.
The dopamine crash when you arrive at the sale to get the SOLD OUT button sucks. I hate it. I wish I could send each of you a Snickers Ice Cream Bar or something to help. It flipping stinks.
Please feel free to share your comments and experiences below. Perhaps there will be some adjustments made to these sales that will make them a bit more equal in terms of access for everyone (not you, flipper-scalpers).
Obiligatory disclaimer: I am not sponsored or affiliated with any of these boxes, books, or authors. Additionally, a mention on my page does not mean I endorse the boxes, books, or authors. I am simply providing information.
What gets me, are the fairyloot signed editions now popping up on resale sites asking $350 for the book.
I got my email 17 minutes late and when I joined the wait queue it told me my wait time was 5 hours, I was actually in line maybe 2 ish hours before it let me through and of course by that time the book was sold out.
I got my email at 4 minutes past 1 and immediately joined the queue, which was about 1hr45 but quickly jumped to 2 hours. Within a couple of minutes I also joined the queue on my laptop because I've been thrown out the queue on my phone before (which did happen again after the first hour, so I gave up on the phone) needless to say after a 2+ hour wait it was sold out so I didn't get a copy. It's bad enough that the queue system seems broken, but the fact it regularly throws people out so multiple people are having to join on more than one device doesn't help the wait times at all. I get that…
I got the email at 9 minutes past 1pm, UK time and joined immediately. The wait time was 2hrs and 45 minutes. I was stunned, but alas, I still stayed. The time went one, down to 2hr 30 mins, back up to 2 hrs 45 mins over the course of 30 minutes and then shot down to 1hr. I was hopeful. Time went on, down to 30 mins, then 25 blah blah. Only to find the damn thing had SOLD. OUT! I was FUMING. Never have I spent so much time looking at a screen, waiting for a book with sprayed edges. I would've rather someone told me to walk over a Lego path several times that wait in that…
I totally agree with everything said here, but maybe let's not get upset at the author for not signing another batch of books when her disability makes it so much harder to do!
They agreed on a number of books with the publisher before it blew up!