Group Buy & Pre-order Policy
What is a Group Buy?
A Group Buy (GB) is a type of pre-order for a product before it has been manufactured. A GB is usually open for several weeks. At some point after the group buy end date, typically within a week, vendors place the order with the manufacturer.
What is a Pre-Order?
The term "pre-order" is used when referring to pre-orders for extra product ("Extras") purchased by Vala Supply to sell after the group buy period has ended. This allows people who missed out on the group buy to have a chance at purchasing the product without being subject to exorbitant aftermarket pricing. To account for the opportunity cost of holding this extra inventory, Extras are typically priced higher than the group buy price. If the Extras do not sell out in the pre-order phase, they will be listed as in stock upon arrival and processing.
Different group buys in a single order
We do not allow multiple group buys in the same order as it is highly likely one's delivery will be delayed by the other. This same principle applies to combining different pre-orders, live group buys with pre-orders, live group buys with in-stock items, and pre-orders with in-stock items. Please place separate orders to make sure you get your products as soon as possible.
Shipping of group buys and pre-orders
In the case of group buys, soon after the group buy period ends the product order is placed with the manufacturer. Then, according to the estimated timeline, the products are manufactured and shipped to Vala Supply. Once we receive the products processing and fulfillment will begin. Once we work our way to your order, you will be notified of shipment by email.
Pre-orders can be available at any stage of the post-group-buy process, so their estimated shipping time varies. Please check the respective product page for the estimated fulfillment time. As mentioned above, once the pre-ordered units arrive at our warehouse, they will become in stock after processing and shipment of all outstanding group buy orders and pre-orders.
Shipping of combined orders
Some group buys may have sub-products with different estimated fulfillment times. If your order contains multiple of these sub-products, they will ship as a bundle upon arrival and processing of all items by Vala Supply. If you want to receive items with different fulfillment timelines as soon as they arrive, you will need to submit separate orders.
You can pay for shipping separately if Vala Supply receives an item earlier than another upon request, but our default behavior will be to wait until all items have arrived to us before getting them out to you. We are working on a system to better communicate when products you pre-ordered are available for fulfillment.