POD Review: Ravensburger Puzzle World

Dear Puzzlers,
Dear POD Artists,

You do know I LOVE sharing new print on demand opportunities with you and who on this planet does not love to either solve or sell (I myself hate solving puzzles 😂) puzzles? A few days ago I literally stumbled upon the Ravensburger Puzzle World by German puzzle manufacturer Ravensburger – a really renowned company in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

They have started their own print on demand service embedded in their community for puzzlers where everyone may upload their own photos and graphics to be either solved online for free by other members or to be printed and shipped within Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

At first, I was THRILLED! I mean it’s Ravensburger! It’s huge, it’s THE puzzle company in my area. The puzzles might even be sold in retail, who knows! And they promised an “attractive royalty” which got me hooked right away. Off I was, created a free account and uploaded 5 of my photos to test them. One of the five did not pass their quality test – god knows why. Four had made it and are available.

But on the next day I tried to find out what exactly was their promised “attractive royalty”. At first, I found out it was 5% of the puzzle’s sale price. Ok, that’s a fair amount. But then I dug deeper to look for information on how they would pay me. I mean, bank transfer or Paypal?

The information was hidden really really really deep and I started to wonder… until I found it and what I read was NOT pleasant at all!

You will be paid in points… puzzle points that can be redeemed in their own online shop… for puzzles… ARRGGGHHH! Not exactly what I had expected…

So here I am, with four uploaded photos to test the service and I will probably not upload any more. Unless these four will sell so often that I can get gazillions of free puzzles per year – which is slightly unlikely to ever happen…

At this point I cannot recommend Ravensburger Puzzle World to pod artists / designers for earning money with them. It might be a nice idea to order a puzzle with your own photo to brag that it’s a Ravensburger puzzle… who knows…