Frequently Asked Questions for Purchasing a 12 foot Skeleton & Friends

Q. Where can I purchase a 12 foot Skeleton or his Skelly friends?

A. The 12 foot Skeleton is exclusively sold by Home Depot and can only be purchased on Home Depot’s website or at your local Home Depot store.

Q. When is the 12 foot Skeleton available to purchase online?

A. Home Depot does a few releases each year of their exclusive Halloween items. Halfway to Halloween occurs in April and Skelly is available only on their website. This is typically a 24 hour online only event. Their largest online release is in July when you will get the first opportunity to not only purchase Skelly but to also purchase their newly released items. This is scheduled for Thursday, July 18th.

Q. What time is the 12 foot Skeleton released online during the online release events?

A. Rarely is there a specific time but it is historically early in the morning. Home Depot will usually say “early in the morning” or by 6:00 a.m. ET. The word “by” is used very loosely. We have seen items release as early as 4:00 a.m. ET. Many of our members will wake up very early the morning of or stay up late at night, depending on their time zone, to ensure they don’t miss out on an item they really want. Popular items will sell out very quickly! If you are part of the 12 foot Skeleton Owner’s Group Facebook page the members will start posting as soon as they see an item available to purchase.

Q. How large is the box of the 12 foot Skelly?

A. The box is 40”W x 44”D x 27” tall. Measure the cargo space of your vehicle before going to Home Depot to pick up your Skelly. Some Skelly owners opt to remove their Skelly from the box in the parking lot to fit it into the vehicle. If you decide to do this make sure you take Skelly’s power cord with you. It has often been left in the box by mistake and then the box is disposed of at Home Depot. If you don’t have a vehicle that the will accommodate this large box you may also OPT to rent a truck from Home Depot in order to transport your new friend home.

Q. Can the 12 foot Skeleton only be purchased on Home Depot’s website?

A. No. Skelly is also available at local Home Depot stores. Each Home Depot store will vary but most stores will have their Halloween items out around the beginning of September. We are not in anyway affiliated with Home Depot so it is best to ask your local Home Depot when they will be displaying their items.

Q. What can I do to ensure that I can get a 12 foot Skelly during the release?

A. Log into your Home Depot account prior to the event. If you haven’t made any recent purchases Home Depot may want to send a verification code to you via email. Make sure all of your payment information is up to date. If you are shipping the item(s) to your local store be sure to have your local store chosen on the home page. If you are shipping the item(s) to your home be sure that your shipping address is correct and up to date. Though Home Depot does offer PayPal as a form of payment we have had members in the past who have had issues with this not working when they are in the check out process. Just because an item is in your online cart does not mean it is guaranteed. Check out as soon as possible because if the item you want sells out Home Depot won’t process your order and you may miss out. Make sure you have the 3 or 4 digit code for your credit card available as it’s often needed during checkout. Closely follow the "12 Foot Skeleton Owner’s Group” on Facebook for up to date release information and times. The members of the group are really diligent about letting each other know when items are available.

Q. My charge was pending on my bank account and now it isn’t, has my order been cancelled?

A. No, your order has not been cancelled. When you make your purchase(s) Home Depot will put a hold on the funds until your item ships. That hold may fall off and then be replaced by a permanent charge when your order ships. If you had your item shipped to the store your card may not be permanently charged until you pick up your item. We do not recommend reaching out to customer service via chat. They want to solve your problem and in trying to be helpful they have cancelled many people’s orders and once it is cancelled it can’t be fixed if the inventory is sold out. Be patient! The orders will work themselves out.

Q. Does Home Depot offer any type of discounts on their Halloween items?

A. There may be a Home Depot credit card offer that offers a discount or zero percent interest financing for a limited time. One perk of making purchases with the Home Depot credit card is that this qualifies you for their 365 day return policy.

A. Are you active duty military, retired military or a military veteran? If so   you may qualify for Home Depot’s military discount of 10%. Please visit their website to sign up for this discount.

Q. Does the 12 foot Skeleton ship to my home or local store?

A. Both are an option. Ship to home was approximately $50 at the time of this blog post. Home Depot will hand your order off to a third party delivery company to deliver it to your home so you will receive multiple tracking numbers that may seem confusing but this is the reason for those tracking number. Members have had issues with their items getting lost via this third party delivery service so we highly recommend shipping to the store if possible. Shipping to your local store is FREE. You may receive tracking information for this but ultimately your Home Depot store will contact you when your item is ready for pick up. Be prepared to show a picture ID and/or order confirmation information.

Q. I called my local Home Depot store and they didn’t know anything about this release, why?

A. We don’t know what type of information is passed down from Home Depot Headquarters to their store managers and then to their employees but we need to all remember that Home Depot is a home improvement retailer. The majority of their business is home improvement items. Halloween is only seasonal and until they have their items in their store they most likely aren’t too concerned with Halloween that takes up a small seasonal space in their retail locations.

Q. Is the online release inventory that I see on the website for my local store?

A. Online release inventory is nationwide inventory. During the online releases the inventory doesn’t vary from store to store. The number available is available to everyone nationwide. The actual store you chose doesn’t have your items in stock during the release. Your item(s) will be shipping there for pick up. When it gets closer to Halloween and the stores have Halloween inventory in stock then you will be able to check your local stores inventory.