Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between a Classical Style and a Victorian style puzzle design?

A: A Victorian style puzzle has free form, organically shaped pieces. They may be long and thin or stubby and fat plus the pieces are significantly dissimilar. A Classic style puzzle has piece shapes that are generally squarish with tabs and sockets that fit and interlock. Classic piece style is what comes to mind for most people when they think of a jigsaw puzzle. Puzzles with Victorian style pieces tend to be the most difficult to solve.

Q: How can I tell the difficulty of the different puzzles?

A: We classify difficulty at three levels: Moderate, Challenging, Extreme.

Moderate: an experienced puzzler will complete this in an afternoon or two. Suitable for families with children and all will enjoy solving it together.
Challenging: an experienced puzzler will complete this in two to four sessions. Will require some level of patience for all and some children will find the experience frustrating. But not so difficult as to seem unsolvable.
Extreme: will challenge even the most experienced puzzler. The solution will require not just finding of pieces but understanding of how the puzzle works with the image. Can take many sessions to solve. Will be very satisfying to all who complete them. Not recommended for most children.

As a general statement, classic piece designs are easier than Victorian piece designs. Collages or images with many colors that have hard edges are simpler than images with larger areas of consistent or gradually changing colors. And, fewer pieces solve more rapidly than many!

Q: What are whimsy pieces?

A: Whimsy pieces are specially designed to represent something. Perhaps a person or an animal or something that relates to the puzzle being solved. They are designed because they can be and are intended to entertain the Puzzler during the puzzle solving process. They can also increase the difficulty of the puzzle.

Q: What is giclée printing and why is it special?

A: Giclée printing is a very high quality of ink jet printing used typically to reproduce fine art creations. The key elements are:

Very high resolution at a minimum of 300 dpi
Archival grade papers
High quality printers that use 8 - 12 different colors of pigment-based inks that ensure a very long, fade free life for the images printed.

The process is costly but results in prints that become puzzles that will become family heirlooms.

Q: What happens if I lose or break a piece?

A: Perplexing Puzzles offers a broken or lost piece guarantee! All you must do is assemble the puzzle and take a photo of the section with the missing piece and email customerservice@perplexingpuzzles.com and we will send along a replacement. Note that the photo is critical as it is the only way we can identify the piece you need!

Q: What are standard order fulfilment times?

A: We try to keep several units of each puzzle on hand at all times to ensure that we can fulfill each order no later than the next business day. However, there are occasions when demand is such that we are not able to keep up with the orders. If that should occur, we will contact you directly with an estimated shipping date.

Q: How do you ship the puzzles to me?

A: Standard flat rate shipping is USPS Parcel Select and will reach most locations in the contiguous 48 states in five to eight business days or less. Express shipping is available. Contact us at customerservice@perplexingpuzzles.com for overseas shipping arrangements.

Q: Where are Perplexing Puzzles made?

A: Our puzzles are made one at a time by craftsmen in New Bern, North Carolina, USA.

Q: What are the puzzles made out of?

A: Our puzzles are made from 1/8" (3 mm) baltic birch plywood, giclée printed images, tin boxes, psa labels and tissue paper. Each puzzle piece layout is unique to that puzzle as are the whimsy pieces. The layouts are then optimized for our laser cutters and produced one at a time by specially trained craftsmen.