I learned to do adult level jigsaws as a kid, from a woman who worked with my father who would give me ones she didn't want anymore. They were often missing a piece. She mostly did them upside down to make it more challenging. :) If it's a new puzzle, I do a thorough search for the missing pieces because they're usually under the sofa. Important to do before vacuuming! I would be really miffed if a sealed puzzle were really missing a piece. I've had ones that had an extra piece, which I figured they threw in just to make it harder. I sure hope it isn't because it escaped from the next puzzle in line and hopped into the wrong package!

But, yes, there's still good play value in a puzzle that's missing a piece or two. It ups the difficulty a little because one searches in vain for those lost pieces, but unless it's the focal point of the picture, it's really not a big deal. Maybe a little like "shave and a haircut" without the "two bits". Definitely put the note on it, and repeat inside. If the thrift shop doesn't want it, a rehab center, jury room, or similar place might be glad of it. Or give it to a bored tween.

Thanks all. Have no idea what happened to the piece and have searched under and in sofa. It's such a cute puzzle, beach scene with flags, kites, seagulls; I loved doing it and was disappointed when DIL worked it and a piece was missing. I'll do the note thing.

Another idea is offering on Freecycle as crafting pieces, mentioning that puzzle is not whole - pieces are missing. There are many crafts being made that use these puzzle pieces.

There are a lot of crafts that use puzzle pieces....check on Pinterest and see if you could use these favorite pieces in another way.

If you really like the puzzle and would like to work it again you can make your own piece to replace the missing piece. Unless you're a professional artist it will always be noticeable but at least you won't have a hole in the middle.

Use a piece of thin cardboard - like the back of a tablet or a notebook and place it underneath the puzzle where you are missing the piece, then trace the outline on the cardboard and cut it out. Then just do your best to color it in.

I agree donate and make a not that there is a piece or two missing;

It doesn't make that much difference to me if there is a missing piece or two. I have several puzzles that I have done when my brother and his daughter have come for Christmas. I did them again later and they had missing pieces. I finally put a note on the box so I don't go crazy looking for them.

When they turned up missing in the first place, we scoured the area around the work table but couldn't find the pieces. But with a child involved and a cat in residence, who knows where they ended up. LOL

Yep. Growing up, my brothers and I would all snag a piece or two of the puzzle. It was a contest to see who could put in the last piece. :-)

Maire cate, that's an excellent idea and sounds like fun too. The piece is "sky." I might do that after the holidays.

OK, Kathy, let me know if you find a piece of sky! Very funny.

The odd thing about losing the puzzle piece, the grandkids were not here, and our current cat doesn't steal pieces like the other one did.

we always have a puzzle set up at work for people to work on while they are on break. Last Wednesday I reached into my pocket after I got home and found a piece of the puzzle. No it wasn't close to being done not even close. I thought I had felt a piece fall but I couldn't find it on the floor. So I thought I must have imagined it, but it was in my pocket all along.

If that missing piece bugs you so much, why not make a replacement piece.

Slip piece of cardboard under the blank space, trace the outline (use pencil), remove the cardboard, and paint or with color pencils. fill in the missing figure. Its ok to slop over the outline since this will be cut away. Carefully cut the piece out cutting just outside the traced line. Recall that the line was traced along the inside of the hole therefore the piece goes to the outer edge of the trace line. Since the line was colored over, your guide is now the light indentation that was made by the trace instrument.

If the replacement board matches the thickness of the puzzle, the new piece should be a good fit.

To check if this procedure is going to work for you, practice with a sheet of heavy paper. Skip the coloring, cut the piece out, and check for fit.

Not too long ago I opened a new puzzle and a piece was missing. I contacted the company and they no longer made that puzzle, but sent me a new puzzle.

I have seen jigsaw puzzles that they put on one piece is missing. They are still done by many due to they love doing jigsaw puzzles. And part of the thrill is that it makes it harder to do as you don't know which piece is missing. Or I have seen some take cardboard and make that piece.

kathy

And then there was the brand-new puzzle I had a couple of years ago with 1 extra piece! I figure that one got caught in the die-cutting machine, and popped out with the next cut. As I was working the puzzle, I couldn't see where one piece would fit in because most all of that color/design was already completed!

Talk about something that drives you crazy!

sushipup, so that is where my missing piece was, in your box! Over the years, I have had 2 brand new well sealed puzzles that each had a missing piece. No kids here to mess with my mind, and the chance of loosing a piece in the area where I work on puzzles is practically nil. I have had a few 2nd hand puzzles with missing pieces.

When I pass a missing piece puzzle on, I draw a circle on the picture on the front of the puzzle's box marking the area where the piece missing goes and then draw an arrow to the edge of the box and write missing piece there. In the past year I have done 22 puzzles. I pass all puzzles along to friends and or charities for fund raising.

.

My DIL and I made a piece to fit. It wasn't easy to cut out. We glued 3 pieces of card together to make the proper thickness. Thanks to those who suggested this because it was a lot of fun to do and I'm happy the puzzle is complete now.

BEFORE

AFTER

And you did a good job too!

I'm so glad that it worked out for you and I'll bet you and your DIL enjoyed the project too.

Yes, Maire, it was fun to do it with her. She's so good at that sort of thing. Thanks for the suggestion.

All kinds of fun ... and useful ... ideas float around this place.

Several brains ... come up with good ideas.

And ... sharing a project ... adds to the fun (and satisfaction).

Sure glad that you showed us the "before", socks ... and, even then, we had to look hard to find which one was the completer.

ole joyfuelled

Thank you, Joyful. She's a new DIL to me, so it was good to have a little project to work on, thus getting to know each other a little better.

Well, none of you have me beat...brand new 1,000 piece puzzle from Rijks Museum and three extra pieces...the "Milk Maid" over did herself!

Hi socks,

How about adding a bird in there: make the sky more interesting ... alive.

ole joyful

I must be the weird one here.....if the puzzle is missing a piece I throw it out so it doesn't frustrate the next person.

The suggestion that one could do arts and craft projects with puzzle pieces intrigued me so I investigated with Google and Pinterest. WOW, I am very impressed with some of the projects!

I'll be visiting the thrift stores soon.

Excellent patch job, Socks! Reminds me of a stained glass window we put in the bathroom. It was missing a little piece. We found a saucer the right color and tried to shape a piece to fit...no luck. Jody took it to a lady who did stained glass restoration, and I can't remember now why she didn't fix it, but she suggested using a piece of plastic. The piece was only about an inch and a half long....we cut the piece from a Tupperware bowl. I cannot find the spot where it was patched. The window hangs very high, but the color matched so well, and is such a small piece, no one would even guess it was repaired with a piece of a bowl.

A friend gave me a puzzle last month. When I put it together, one piece in the border was missing. This was a new puzzle. I was the first to break open the plastic bag inside the box. I photographed the finished puzzle and included a print in the box so that the next person knows where the missing piece is.

That was nice if you, jemdandy.

I crossed out the number of pieces and wrote the actual number of pieces that were in the box (mine was missing 3 pieces).

Socks, I just love that kind of puzzle, where did you find it? That one would be a keeper for me.

do not throw it out, just put missing how many pieces and let them decide at thrift shop and there are many that love doing jigsaw puzzles and don't mind missing pieces. I have had cats that would walk away with pieces of the puzzles and also chew on pieces and I would go hunting and bring them back and sometimes I couldn't find pieces or too chewed up they were but its okay, mark it and plan ahead, makes it interesting as no one knows what is missing or where.

JoAnn, do you mean the one pictured above? If so, here's a link to it. It is not difficult, only 300 pieces. I'm not good at the puzzles much bigger than that. Charles Wysocki has some other nice ones there as well. Hmmmm.....maybe I should get one myself!

https://smile.amazon.com/Rootbeer-Break-Charles-Wysocki-Buffalo/dp/B00OMVQ2EG/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&qid=1486697518&sr=8-41&keywords=Charles+Wysocki+puzzle

Yes thats it, I just love it. I can get lost in that type of puzzle. I like the 300-500 piece puzzles the big ones take up too much room on the table and I am afraid of losing pieces and the dog eat them. Thanks for the link I may have to get that one. My favorites are by Charles Wysocki.

i had a puzzle we bought at christmas. it was missing about 30 pieces. I got in touch with them and they sent us a new one with a different picture.

but your ? is would I throw it away...my answer is yes

JoAnn, I love that puzzle too. It is just charming with the kites, waving flag. You can just imagine a lovely day at the beach. Working the kites on the fence is fun and easy, but not too easy. I hope you get it.

I usually get mine at thrift stores, or yard sales. usually no more then $1.00. I may break down and get that one though. eBay has them but they want very high shipping. I even saw one for several hundred dollars. What are they thinking or hoping? Did you glue that one or take it apart to do again?

No, I didn't glue it together. I've never done that with a puzzle, but if I ever did that, it would be that one. I still have it.

Most puzzles I do, are so pretty, I do glue the back, and attach it to poster board. I don't have room to hang them, so they're in a pile. As for missing pieces, a puzzle a friend loaned me, had 2 pieces missing. I used a marker and put an "X" in the areas of the missing piece, on the cover of the box. . It would have helped to know where the pieces that weren't there, were supposed to be!

here's a link to Ravensburger puzzles, which are very good too.

https://www.ravensburger.com

I have put together 115 puzzles since February of 2013. Only one of those had a piece missing when newly opened. Only a half dozen or so of those are 1000 piecers. I stick to 500 to 750 pieces because that is what fits on the board I use for them while sitting at my glide rocker. I like all kinds of pictures, but those with a lot going on are most attractive to me. I don't buy used puzzles, but a neighbor and my sister-in-law pass them around and whoever gets it last does whatever they want with them. Mostly they are donated somewhere.

I don't have a favorite brand, but do buy a lot from the Bits and Pieces catalog. Also I have recently discovered that the Ceaco brand sold at Walmart is the most dust free, and are nice made in the USA puzzles.

Well, I broke down and bought that puzzle socks. I just ordered it off ebay for $9.50 w/free shipping. I hate spending so much on a puzzle since I usually find them under $2. or less, but the picture keeps drawing me to it. I still have a pile I haven't done.

Oh Joann, you can pretend you are at the beach. Sandy feet, gulls flying overhead, the scent of the ocean. You have been so careful with puzzle prices, one little splurge is ok in my book!

But I sometime spurge too much! That's what I was hoping for with this puzzle since I can't seem to get to the beach.

JoAnn, glad you were able to get that puzzle from ebay and at a reasonable price. I posted on your ebay thread about what I saw there. The one I mentioned there was one of many that I saw that I know are still available online and/or in different catalogs. New and often with a free puzzle when you place any order.

I know you posted this quite some time ago but I just want to tell you how much I appreciated you taking the time to ask this question and that so many people took the time to answer! Surprisingly enough, I had a very difficult time trying to search this on Google and most links said something like "who wants a puzzle thats missing a piece?". As the owner of a lifetime of frisky cats and dogs, it is always a rare occasion for me to have all the pieces at the time of completion. As a perfectionist it used to DRIVE ME INSANE but now I just consider it a win when I'm only missing one or two. They usually show up in the craziest spots days, weeks, even months later lol I've actually started to enjoy trying to figure out which puzzle they belong to. I think this means a very busy winter for me. Gotta rebuild them all again just to see if any are missing ROFL if it's none or the numbers low - donate but too many and I'm definitely going to try out some of those crafting ideas or give them to some crafting friends!!! Now that I've literally told you my entire lives story I just wanted to thank you for taking the chance and asking this question! You have officially made a difference in someone's life just by posting on a forum

I borrow them from our library which lends them with no due date. However, if a piece is missing, they toss the puzzle.

Jodi, how kind your post was. I hope you are missing some puzzle pieces so you can "make" replacements. LOL..... It makes the puzzle more interesting, one of a kind!

That's too bad your library tosses the puzzle, Annie. Maybe you could offer to donate to a thrift shop. Since the original post here, I have started volunteering in a thrift shop type store, and people do buy puzzles marked with a missing piece or two.

Socks - I know it seems wasteful to toss puzzles that are missing pieces but that's what I ended up doing in my library. We kept a library truck near the check-out where we placed paperbacks, puzzles, gamebooks etc. that we didn't want and that our readers could take home - to keep.

We even noted on the puzzle boxes that it had been opened and donated to the library and we couldn't be certain all the pieces were inside. Unfortunately we received so many complaints from people who had spent hours working on the puzzle only to find there were missing pieces that we stopped giving them away.

Oh well, at least they are cardboard and break down!