Limited editions, not limited-time sales

There is a particular kind of online shop trickery where every product appears to be about to run out. "Only 3 left in stock!" "5 people are viewing this item right now!" "Sale ends in 02:14:36!" None of it is true. All of it is designed to make you click "buy" before you’ve decided whether you want the thing. We do not do any of that. We do, however, run actual limited editions — which is a different thing entirely, and worth explaining the difference.

What a limited edition actually is

A limited edition is a cap on how many mugs of a given design will ever exist. When we say "edition of 50" on the Godrevy mug, we mean: 50 will be pressed, hand-numbered 1 / 50 through 50 / 50, and when number 50 reaches the kiln, the plate retires. We do not press a 51st. The design moves into the archive, the page is marked "retired", and that’s the end of that design.

This is a convention borrowed straight from print-making. A signed and numbered etching of 50 means there are 50 of them — not 50 in this print run with another 50 to follow if it sells well. We apply the same rule to the mug.

What it is not

It is not a sales tactic. We do not invent edition sizes to manufacture scarcity. The £14.99 standard line is unnumbered and open — anyone can buy it for as long as we feel like drawing things. The £19.99 limited line is a real run of 25 or 50, with real numbering. The £29.99 studio proof line is a real run of 10, fired at heavier line weight, intended for people who want the most considered version of a given design.

What the chip on the product card means

Every product card shows the edition state. "Open" means the standard line — there is no cap. "Limited (28 / 50)" means 28 of the 50-edition have been pressed; 22 remain. "Closing soon" appears in the last 5 of any edition. "Retired" means the plate has come down — you can browse the design in the archive, but you cannot order it. None of these labels are running clocks or fake scarcity. They are the actual state of the run.

The honest cost

Running editions costs us money. It would be more profitable, in the narrow short-term sense, to leave every design open for ever and never retire anything. Two things change when an edition has an end. First, the customer knows exactly what they own — one of 50, not one of a quietly infinite number. Second, we are forced to keep designing, which is the work we'd rather be doing anyway. So we take the financial hit and the design wins.