Have you quality-checked your jigsaw puzzles already? | Tips in choosing quality puzzles

Checking the quality of your jigsaw puzzles will make your purchase worth it however, how will you quality-checked your puzzles?

In this article, I will discuss it for you in detail so you can make necessary considerations when buying one. Let’s begin!

What makes a good-quality jigsaw puzzle?

A jigsaw puzzle is considered a good one if it passed the internal and external quality check. Internal quality testing is done by the manufacturer before it is released in the market however, this will not give a 100% guarantee that external quality checking of target clients will appreciate it because of individual preferences.

In this article, I will help you decide on buying a product based on two quality criteria I mentioned above: internal quality and external quality.

Internal quality checking is done by a jigsaw puzzle manufacturer. This is a process where they must reach the company’s product standard they’ve set prior to selling. These product standards must pass starting from the image planning up to the packaging stage.

If you’re curious as to how jigsaw puzzles are made, I recommend you to read that article. It is a step-by-step discussion so that you’ll appreciate every piece of it even more.

Let’s go back to our topic.

Since there are requirements that must be met in every step of making a jigsaw puzzle, it’ll ensure the consumers that their purchase will all be worth the price.

You might wonder as to what are those product standards they’re considering in each jigsaw puzzle, so here’s a list for your reference.

Here are key things to know if a jigsaw puzzle is good:

• Materials
• Design
• Cut
• Shape
• Size
• Thickness
• Weight
• Image glare
• Number of pieces
• Level of difficulty

If you wanted to know a more detailed explanation on each of them, you may check my article about learn how to choose a good jigsaw puzzle: https://puzzlingcut.com/learn-how-to-choose-a-good-jigsaw-puzzle/

Customer feedback, on the other hand, is another one. It is the external quality check you may want to verify yourself as well. These are comments, suggestions, and reviews from people who have purchased their products.

You see, there is this quote that says “nobody is perfect.” It all applies not only to everyone but also to everything around us. Even though a jigsaw puzzle may perfectly pass all the manufacturer’s quality product standards, when it comes to consumers’ hands, it may say a different story because of individual preferences and expectations.

With this external quality check, manufacturers have the chance to improve their products based on the preferences of their clients. These improvements will be a stepping stone to cater to all the needs and wants of those people so that all will be accommodated accordingly.

Unfortunately, not all feedback will be accepted. This is because they still need to strictly follow the company’s guidelines over their clients’ responses. If it goes beyond the company’s protocol or offered products, there’s nothing they can do about it.

For example, if the customer has indicated to their feedback that the jigsaw puzzle they’ve bought should have other designs aside from cartoon characters but the brand only offers cartoon characters-inspired puzzles, then they can’t do something about that. It’s beyond their call, their purpose, and their line of product.

How do I choose a good puzzle?

Choosing an item to buy takes a lot of effort and consideration. Sometimes, it’s a headache especially when you have many to choose from and you’re going to buy it as a gift.

Decision fatigue is real and may end up not buying anything instead or worse, you may buy something that isn’t great at all.

You can personally choose a good jigsaw puzzle if you know what you need, how much budget would you like to spend on it, and much attraction you have for it in a glance. Knowing these basic decision-making techniques helps you decide with ease and will save you a lot of time.

Knowing what you need is the first thing you should do before going to a store. Ask yourself some personal questions about the item you wish to buy. You can use the following questions below to help you with that.

• Do I have a place to work on this?
• Do I have the time to finish this?
• Am I willing to exert effort, patience, and time to complete it?
• Do I have a place to keep it afterwards?
• Am I going to buy it to enjoy or am I just buying it impulsively without reasons?

Remember, these questions are only guides to know yourself better before you buy a puzzle. It will vary depending on your personality and your other reasons. Feel free to add up or create your own list of personal questions.

Just make sure to ask yourself 5 consecutive questions related to each other to know yourself deeper. It is a technique I’ve read from the book of Mark Manson about The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. It’s pretty applicable in anything. You may want to read that book as well, it’s a great find for people experiencing quarter-life crises like I used to.

Next is, how much is your budget. 

When buying anything, always consider your budget. Not because you’re cheap or too thrifty or an extravagant spender, it’s because you should be practical. Practical in the sense that you know where you wanted your money to be spent.

You should learn how to value, and what value should your money give you. In this way, it’ll never be an issue if you bought something too cheap or too expensive because you know its main purpose and value in your life.

Knowing your personal values is a deep topic to be discussed in this article but if you wanted to know more about the importance of having clear values and knowing your values, you can check these links for your references, it’s great folk!

Lastly, your attraction at first glance.

Some say that there’s “love at first sight”. Well, I guess it’s applicable for buying things rather than in people, I guess. It’s just my opinion Puzzlers. We all do have different stands on that, right?

The main point is that whatever thing catches your attention at first glance proves that it’s the one you definitely like the most. This is because our brain is designed to store subconscious lists of things we prefer or not without having the awareness of it all the time.

It’s like pre-stored apps on your phones when you buy a new one. These are already on your phone because these are the things we’ll likely use every time. In short, it matches our basic phone preferred apps.

A 5-second look test is an effective method for this. When you already caught yourself in the middle of decision fatigue, try closing your eyes for a while. Then, open your eyes and have a quick 5-second glance at all puzzles you’re having a hard time choosing from. Whatever puzzle you see first, you buy that one.

NOTE:
The 5-second look test technique should only be done once.
Doing it repeatedly will only make your decision-making journey worst because it’ll add up unnecessary what if’s in your head.

What are some good jigsaw puzzles?

Here are some famous jigsaw puzzle brands available in online stores:

1. Ravensburger
2. Buffalo games
3. Galison
4. eeboo
5. Clementoni
6. Springbok
7. Trefl

These listed brands have been in the industry for a long-time thus, establishing not only their presence but also their credibility as jigsaw puzzle companies.

If you want to check on other companies that make jigsaw puzzles, I recommend you to check on this article for more information: https://puzzlingcut.com/what-companies-make-jigsaw-puzzles/

If you’re still having a hard time settling on which one to buy, I listed below the most popular items sold online to help you.

Dimension: 38.5 x 14.7 x 0.07 inches
Weight: 1 pound
Recommended age: 14-18 years old

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: Sturdy, giftable, easy to assemble, good quality of image, color, and thickness
Negative: loosely fit, 3 missing pieces

Dimension: 10.63 x 8 x 8 inches
Weight: 14.4 ounces
Recommended age: 14-15 years old

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: challenging, good design
Negative: pieces can fit in multiple places, missing pieces

Dimension: 26 x 0.2 x 20 inches
Weight: 2 Pounds
Recommended age: 12 years old and above.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: thick quality pieces, nostalgic design
Negative: the whole image is not seen on the box

Dimension: 8.25 x 11.25 x 2.18 inches
Weight: 1.5 pounds
Recommended age: 8 years old and above

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: thick, goodness of fit, crisp image
Negative: some pieces are peeling apart

Dimension: 8 x 8 x 2.25 inches
Weight: 1 pound
Recommended age: 5 years old and above

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: goodness of fit, vibrant colors, challenging
Negative: missing pieces

Dimension: 30 x 24 x 0.25 inches
Weight: 1.5 pounds
Recommended age: 10 years old and above

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: nostalgic design, challenging, fun
Negative: missing pieces

Dimension: 11 x 11 x 2 inches
Weight: 1.5 pounds
Recommended age: 14 years old and above

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: challenging, strong pieces, vivid colors
Negative: image glare, missing pieces

Dimension: 26.89 x 18.9 x 0.08 inches
Weight: 1.58 pounds
Recommended age: 14-90 years old

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: cute and funny images, challenging
Negative: missing piece/s, damaged box

Dimension: 14.57 x 2.17 x 11.06 inches
Weight: 1.89 pounds
Recommended age: 14 years old and above

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: beautiful image, challenging
Negative: no complete image reference on the box, missing pieces

Dimension: 27.1 x 19.3 inches
Weight: 1.61 pounds
Recommended age: 12 years old and above

CUSTOMER FEEDBACKS
Positive: goodness of fit, thick pieces
Negative: some pieces are identical

CONCLUSION

Knowing what you want, and recognizing quality-made puzzles takes time and effort. It’s hard especially when you’re given a lot of choices.

To make it easier, list the things you put a large value on, like your main reason why you’re buying one, how much is your budget, your attraction to the puzzle, other customer feedback on it, and the jigsaw puzzle brand’s reputation.

I hope this will help you in choosing your own puzzle.