The journey of your printed deck

Every printed order goes through four stages, which you can follow on your order page:

• 1. Cards ready — your cards are generated and waiting for your review.

• 2. Your approval — this step is yours! Review every card, edit anything that isn't right, then tap "Confirm & Send to Print". Production does not start until you approve your deck — if your order seems paused, this is the most common reason. See How to approve your deck for printing.

• 3. Production — once approved, your deck is professionally printed and quality-checked. How long that takes depends on the edition you ordered (see below).

• 4. Shipping — as soon as your order is dispatched you'll receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking information.

Production windows by edition

The clock starts when you approve your deck for print — not when you ordered.

• Deluxe printed deck — up to 14 business days. Printed on premium 350gsm card stock and delivered in a velvet keepsake pouch.

• Standard edition — up to 21 business days. The same complete deck on smooth card stock, shrink-wrapped, at about half the deluxe price.

• Collector's Edition — up to 21 business days. Hand-finished, which is what makes it take longer.

Not sure which one you have? Your order page names your edition, and the confirmation email you received at checkout does too.

Business days

Our production timelines are estimates in business days and do not include weekends or public holidays.

Why these timelines are estimates

Every Tails deck is made to order. There is no shelf of finished decks waiting to be picked and boxed — yours doesn't exist until you approve it. The moment you do, we start a print run of exactly one deck: your photos, your cards, printed, cut, counted, checked and packed for you and nobody else.

That's what makes it a keepsake rather than something off a shelf, and it's also why the dates we show are estimates rather than guarantees. Occasionally an order takes a little longer than the window we quote. Here's what's usually behind that:

• Nothing is pre-made. Most things you order online ship the next day because thousands of identical copies were printed months ago. Yours is printed only after you approve it — the clock genuinely starts then.

• Every card is checked individually. No two decks are alike, so we can't inspect one and assume the rest are fine. Each card is generated and quality-checked on its own, and if a single one doesn't come out right, it's made again before anything is printed or packed.

• Finishing takes the time it takes. Card stock, cutting, edges and packaging all happen deck by deck — and the Collector's Edition is genuinely finished by hand.

• The last stretch isn't ours to control. Once your parcel is with a courier, its route, local delivery schedules, paperwork, weather and public holidays all have a say.

If your order runs past its window, nothing is lost. Your deck is a real object made specifically for you — it can't be handed to anyone else — and it is still on its way. Your tracking page keeps updating the whole time.

We'd rather take an extra day or two and send you something worth keeping than rush a deck that only exists because of you.

Taking longer than expected?

If you haven't received a shipping update within the production window for your edition (14 business days for the deluxe printed deck, 21 for the standard edition and the Collector's Edition) counted from the day you approved your deck for print, please reach out to us at support@tails-ai.com with your order number — we'll check on it right away.