Is it just me, or is American Crafts...

I was thinking the same thing yesterday, before I saw your post. I pulled out a sheet from one of the new Project Pads from JoAnn, and found that the hole that should have been in the binding strip actually extended into the 12x12 area. And like you mentioned, the printing is slightly askew as well. Disappointing.

The 12x12 chipboard sets. Oof, they're rough. I haven't had centered printing in ages on those. I'll have the shape on the one side cut off by a mm and then a large white outlining on the other side of the image.

I think we notice this most often in AC products because they are the bulk of our products.  I mean, they might be a little worse than other companies and obviously have the worst time getting products to stores but:
- I have 2 unusable pieces of ephemera in my newest PinkFresh packet - and I expect them to be better - one is a blank cut, and the other is completely off (like half off the cut, not usable!)
I expect so much better of them that I carefully went through the package expecting those pieces to be there in better form... nope.

So while I agree there are LOTS of issues, I think it may not be as "AC" focussed as we think?
I also wonder about the quality of products going to box stores - they are probably different production lines and I wonder if the control is less.

It's definitely one of the reasons i like purchasing from scrapbook dot com. When I've had issues, they will send a replacement no questions asked.
Actually, they've been SO good about it, I don't want to complain about little things!!! Like those 2 ephemera pieces from Pink fresh - I am just letting that go,
because I really don't think it's work the store mailing me out another package... not their fault.

I bought two packs of their white cardstock when the price went down to about $12. All of them were cut at a slant. Did the price dip when they knowingly had to get rid of bad product?

I bought mine in December 2020 and I don't know how long there was an issue. I hope yours aren't wonky, too.

While quality control decreases across the papercrafting industry, prices increase! Paper collections from AC brands aren't my style (ie vintage, floral, pastel, stereotypically feminine, overly themed, odd icons, etc.), clear stamp sets are cheap acrylic, & many embellishments aren't labeled as acid free or archival quality &/or are advertised as stickers but don't stick! The only AC product I've purchased in the last ~1.5 years is Bazzill cardstock packs in neutral colors (at TM).

In general, it seems more papercrafting supplies are produced in China compared to a decade ago when more smaller companies were sourcing most of their products locally/regionally/nationally. Perhaps quality control has been more lax in the last ~15 months because of factory lockdowns/protocols & papercrafting companies cannot afford to wait for corrected shipments due to international delays related to Covid.

I have had a few QC issues with other companies as well, happy to say when I contacted each of them they replaced the item(s) right away.

I don't buy a ton of AC, the most I have is probably Maggie Holmes lines, and those items have been fine-no, I take that back. The two MH sticker books-all the stickers need glue to make them stick. We all know the Thickers no-stick problem too. 😆

Ugh, that would be infuriating. I had a Fiskars trimmer that didn't cut anything square and it was the absolute worst thing ever. Nothing looks quite right if the corners aren't square.