# Jigsaw puzzle with extra piece **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 24, 2024, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700 "2024-04-24T15:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/1 "2024-04-24T15:29:22Z")
This is a plea for assistance! Yesterday, a friend and I were working on a jigsaw puzzle - a 500 piecer which we started weeks ago and occasionally return to. We had found all the edge pieces early on, and put them in place. But something was wrong. As we filled in the middle, we noticed the thing was starting to buckle - the more pieces we added, the more obvious there was a problem - you couldn’t get one area to lie flat without another popping up. Then it hit us. One of the edge pieces was actually a duplicate piece that had an exact twin, and after removing the extra piece, the problem went away. [![](https://i.postimg.cc/pLQV0cx8/puzzle-piece.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/pLQV0cx8/puzzle-piece.jpg) Now I can’t sleep. If our puzzle has an extra piece, it means that somewhere out there is a puzzle with a piece missing. What should I do? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/2 "2024-04-24T15:32:20Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > If our puzzle has an extra piece, it means that somewhere out there is a puzzle with a piece missing. Or the company deliberately puts an extra piece in their puzzles [just to mess with people.](https://www.puzzlewarehouse.com/impossibles-jigsaw-puzzles/) ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/3 "2024-04-24T15:43:56Z")
That does not seem like a sound business model. “Messing with people” will get you kicked out of the puzzle game, pronto. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/4 "2024-04-24T16:41:24Z")
You’re discounting the large proportion of the jigsaw puzzle fandom that disdains easy features like definite edges or photographic patterns or the correct number of pieces. This isn’t “messing with” puzzle customers. This is giving them the increase in difficulty they demand. And it’s not like this doesn’t come with fair warning. Every puzzle I’ve seen with this feature loudly proclaim this _as a feature_ on the front of the box, so the puzzler is aware of and prepared for the possibility that any particular piece they’ve trying to place may not belong in the puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/5 "2024-04-24T17:18:49Z")
I’ve done them. There are 3 or 4 extra pieces which go together but do not connect to the main puzzle. As for the OP, there is nothing to do. I assume this is a new puzzle. Many companies have a help line (or site) that lets you request missing pieces. I’ve never had call to use it, and probably wouldn’t since I do so many puzzles, most from thrift stores, that a missing piece or two is no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/6 "2024-04-24T17:34:02Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > If our puzzle has an extra piece, it means that somewhere out there is a puzzle with a piece missing. Almost certainly the case. Six or more cardboard puzzles are stacked on top of one another and cut at the same time. Each is slid off of the stack into a hopper and box. Infrequently, a piece from one puzzle will stick to the one above or below it. 90% of a puzzle company’s customer service workload is fielding missing pieces complaints. About 1% of those are actually because all of the pieces were not in the box. Contacting a company about an extra piece is a waste of everybody’s time. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/7 "2024-04-24T17:43:37Z")
I had a 3000 piece puzzle that had an extra piece. It was quite annoying as it wasn’t an edge piece but it was part of a border that I had already finished. I couldn’t figure out why it didn’t go anywhere until I finished the thing and went looking for where it belonged. I had also accidently put on piece in the wrong place and it took me quite awhile to figure out where it belonged. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/8 "2024-04-24T18:15:42Z")
That’s just it. If you want to make a puzzle for people who demand “harder, ever harder! I accept the challenge!”, then it’s only fair that you say so on the box. But I refuse to accept that my extra piece cannot be reunited with its brothers and sisters and must remain an orphan! I am not that heartless! Yes, occasionally accidents happen in the manufacturing process - a piece may stick and wind up in the wrong box. But we are talking about a particular piece, an edge piece (we’ll call it Janet) of a certain shape and pattern, that is now lost, like that fish in that movie. Please help me send Janet home! The world is a big place, but we humans are nothing if not willing to buck impossible odds. We can do this. Help me get the message out! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/9 "2024-04-24T18:26:07Z")
I’d call the company. Someone has called looking for just that piece. Send it to them. And all will be right in the world again. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/10 "2024-04-24T18:43:00Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > But I refuse to accept that my extra piece cannot be reunited with its brothers and sisters and must remain an orphan Well, odds are good that the incomplete puzzle wound up in the trash, so if you throw your excess piece away that’s as close as it’s going to get. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/11 "2024-04-24T18:43:28Z")
_\>I’d call the company. Someone has called looking for just that piece._ Okay, I will do that. It’s a start. Will let you know how I make out. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/12 "2024-04-24T18:46:32Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Yes, occasionally accidents happen in the manufacturing process - a piece may stick and wind up in the wrong box. But we are talking about a particular piece, an edge piece (we’ll call it Janet) of a certain shape and pattern, that is now lost, like that fish in that movie. Please help me send Janet home! The world is a big place, but we humans are nothing if not willing to buck impossible odds. We can do this. Help me get the message out! I would write her name (Janet) on her back, and toss her back into the box when I took the puzzle apart, so she could hang out with her new friends. I agree that it’s a waste of eveyone’s time to attempt to reunite her, unless you happened to be doing your puzzle right next to someone doing another copy of the same puzzle, and could ask them if it belongs with theirs. (I have reunited a lot of stray puzzle pieces, but always from puzzles that had been done near where I found the stray.) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/13 "2024-04-24T19:15:18Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > One of the edge pieces was actually a duplicate piece that had an exact twin, and after removing the extra piece, the problem went away. I’m surprised that the tab on the right side of the piece exactly fits into the left side of the piece. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/14 "2024-04-24T19:59:00Z")
Really, what are the odds? (It wasn’t an exact match though, that was the tipoff.) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/15 "2024-04-24T20:10:08Z")
Nothing I hate more than a brand new puzzle missing a piece. Getting a bonus piece at least allows one to finish the puzzle ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/16 "2024-04-24T20:49:59Z")
True enough, but somewhere a sad person has had their day ruined because of an inexcusable oversight at the faceless, soulless plant where they stamp 'em out. Whatever happened to pride in craftsmanship? If I were in charge, I’d insist that every puzzle get a “test run” before it is allowed to leave the building. Beck: No way to call the company. They have a Missing Piece replacement form, but guess what? They do not replace pieces, just send you another puzzle, and it might not even be the same puzzle! What a racket! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/17 "2024-04-24T22:51:43Z")
One of the 1500 piece puzzles I’ve done (not my largest, but close to it) had a large, prominent tree as part of the scene. And there were pieces of that tree where I was finding pieces, and picking out [i]exactly] where that particular pattern of branches was on the picture, except that I already had pieces of that part of the picture put together, and there was just no way the pieces I found could fit with that. I eventually figured it out: The artist had copied-and-pasted one limb of the the tree into another part of the tree, in a different orientation. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/18 "2024-04-24T23:05:07Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > _\>I’d call the company. Someone has called looking for just that piece._ > > Okay, I will do that. It’s a start. Will let you know how I make out. I can imagine how that call might go. “Wow, thank you for calling. We’ve been trying to figure out where that piece went.” Or maybe it’s the golden ticket, like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “Congratulations. You’re now the owner of the jigsaw factory.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/19 "2024-04-25T00:31:45Z")
Someone gave me a 3,000 piece puzzle as a gift. After about 30 minutes working on it I realized that it had 3,000 extra useless pieces and returned it to the box. I gave it to my sister-in-law. She must have used one of those phone in services because she managed to complete it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700/20 "2024-04-25T15:18:52Z")
I got surprised by the difficulty of a Valentines heart. It was only 100 pieces. I thought it would be assembled in 15 to 20 mins. Took me over an hour and half because the odd shape didn’t have typical edge pieces and it was basically all red. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw-puzzle-with-extra-piece/1000700.md?page=2)