Please recommend an online jigsaw puzzle store.

September 8, 2015 9:34 AM

Need more jigsaw puzzles for my Grandmother, and all the online jigsaw puzzle stores look the same to me.

I'm stingy about who gets my cc number, so I'd prefer a shop with both a huge selection and solid customer security. Any and all suggestions are welcome. To be more specific. If you have a long successful purchase history with a particular store, I'd appreciate knowing which one.

For those curious, my Grandmother (Depression era) prefers the Americana puzzles with 300-500 pieces. She considers them good exercise for her memory, and I agree with her on that.

posted by Beholder to Shopping (9 answers total)

I get them from Amazon. At our cottage we prefer Springbok puzzles - maybe find out what manufacturer your grandma likes and narrow your search by that?
posted by cecic at 9:40 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I bought some jigsaw puzzles from Bits and Pieces back in the 90's. On the phone, they sounded like nice people (for what that's worth). Somehow, I got back on their mailing list recently and they seem to have expanded to home and garden stuff, but their main focus is still puzzles. Online, they show 206 Americana puzzles.
posted by bentley at 9:45 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I get them from Amazon. At our cottage we prefer Springbok puzzles - maybe find out what manufacturer your grandma likes and narrow your search by that?

My first draft mentioned this, but I deleted to keep it short. My Grandmother goes through jigsaw puzzles at a pretty fast clip, and I've already bought all the good selections from Amazon. Do to poor eyesight, she struggles with any puzzle over 500 pieces and prefers 300 pieces, so I'm looking for an online store with a wider selection, especially Americana like Jane Wooster Scott.
posted by Beholder at 10:21 AM on September 8, 2015

Response by poster: I bought some jigsaw puzzles from Bits and Pieces back in the 90's.

Thank you!
posted by Beholder at 10:27 AM on September 8, 2015

I can't recommend a website because I've always gotten my puzzles in brick-and-mortar stores, but if you aren't already familiar, Charles Wysocki puzzles were my favorite growing up. Buffalo Games seems to be the current publisher of his puzzles. They're also available through Amazon.
posted by that girl at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2015

I casually know a few of the people at Liberty Puzzles. It may or may not be what you're looking for, but they seem to do interesting and unusual stuff.
posted by brennen at 11:44 AM on September 8, 2015

Seconding Liberty...the puzzles aren't cheap, but they're well worth the money. A totally different experience than regular puzzles...not sure I can ever go back.
posted by Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific at 1:06 PM on September 8, 2015

I've found the White Mountain Puzzle Co to have a lot of good ones, in a very wide range of themes including Americana, and they sell direct from their website.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:11 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

This doesn't help your immediate problem, but you might find it interesting that for similar sized puzzles, many jigsaw manufacturers frequently use the same die to cut puzzles which means that you can frequently swap sections from one puzzle to another to make interesting art.
I recall seeing this in Bananas or Dynamite magazine when I was in 3^rd grade.
posted by plinth at 8:29 AM on September 10, 2015