I am sooo excited to have credits for purchasing Glowforge materials. BUT there is a huge problem … NOTHING is in stock. I know is can convert my credit to cash … HOWEVER if would be nice to be able to get your materials that are designed for my Glowforge.
With the holidays coming up this is very bad timing. Please advise when there will be a restock? Thanks in advance.
The demand from all the new Glowforge owners has gone through the roof even as covid has reduced supply everywhere. If you can find cast acrylic there is not much different from any brand.
The wood is built differently. It is finished on both sides and has masking. There are not many sources that are similar, though there is a wide variety that can work well, depending on your needs.
Support’s standard response:
We apologize. We’re working to keep a variety of materials in stock, but we don’t know how soon stock levels will return to normal. In the meantime, if there’s a Joann near you, they may have the Proofgrade material you want in stock for curbside pick-up.
This was also covered by Dan in the June 2020 Update
… we’ve been having record challenges in keeping Proofgrade materials in stock. Our operations team has been working long hours to keep our factory open, and can no longer travel to meet with suppliers. There’s a global acrylic shortage . Suppliers of wood, leather, and other products are experiencing their own challenges with staffing because of the crisis.
To be honest… I’d recommend coverting to cash, buying some lower cost wood and tape, and sand/finish/mask it yourself. I spend maybe $9 total on a 12x20 1/8" cherry plywood by doing the sanding and finishing and taping myself.
This way you can get going on making things instead of waiting for a long time. And it’s good practice and quite satisfying.
You can’t convert shop credits to cash, only referrals.
Oooh didn’t know that. Seems OP doesn’t know that as well 
learning something new each day. I probably have seen it before and forgot because I rarely get credits and never have referrals.
Maybe I said it wrong. I have credits from referring people, so at this point I have four. Two of those are active. I used one to purchase Glowforge material but my recent one I can’t use because there’s no supply. Looks like I will be better to exchange for cash.
Perhaps in the short term but at some point things will be back, the virus will become just another one of the many strands that already exist(influenza h1n1 A(aka Spanish flu) for example), and life will become another form of what it was. This isn’t the first world pandemic and won’t be the last. I am hoping for it to be quite a bit quicker in passing than others but in the end it’s your call.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I’m sorry that we don’t have the materials that you want in stock. Our team is working hard to make it available as soon as we can.
