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The Conversation Parlor / Re: What drives the prices of cards?
« on: October 02, 2018, 10:32:51 AM »It's been a long time since i posted anything, but i would just like to get some thoughts on this topic.
Recently as i was going through my collection and cleaning it up, I came across a deck of Bicycle Full Moon.
As a collector, i think the special/limited edition is quite cool. Lenticular lens, (which fits the theme of a man turning into a werewolf), USPC printed, Bicycle branded, custom foil, limited to 1,500 decks...etc
A quick search on ebay and a deck costs about $20-30USD max?
Off the top of my head, i can think of:
Bicycle Titanic has individual seals containing information of each passenger.
Seven seas by brain vessel where four decks make up a beautiful mural.
Run Decks with hard neck and shoulder cases.
Simple changes but thought differently. I have over 5000+ decks or more in my collection so i would say i have seen enough to make a judgement.
So many unique decks, so many designers trying out new experiments. Yet a deck of fontaine colour change of 15,000 decks is $50-100 or sometimes even more? Don't get me wrong, i don't set the prices and i am happy to make (or have made) money out of the stacks of existing fontaines that i have. But i probably won't buy them off the market if i missed out on an edition. I've seen people (even more so than last time) do a colour change and slap a limited edition to sell more decks.
I'm just more curious to why are people forking out this absurd amount for a colour change? The stock/finish? The marketing? Or simply a fear of missing out (FOMO) because everyone else has a deck? If its cardistry we are talking about, then i believe there are lots of nicer/simpler looking backs in the market?
There's exactly one thing and one thing only that drives the price of a deck of playing cards, particularly in the post-retail market: what the buyer is willing to pay for them, period, end of story.
I personally find the Fontaines to be as boring as watching paint dry. The entire deck was supposedly bragged about by Zach Mueller for being designed in all of fifteen minutes. I find garden-variety Aviators to be more interesting - and they're as generic as a deck design gets. The color changes to the back design are even worse - thirty seconds to move a color slider in Photoshop and BAM, new limited edition deck. That's not designing, in my opinion - that's just plain lazy, and I don't reward lazy with my money. I'll grant that it's clever marketing, sure - but still lazy design.
But there are people out there who chase after the rarity, who want what's popular, and who are willing to pay the premium to get it. Those Zach Mueller fans that can afford it are happy enough to spend all that money on post-retail Fontaines - and more power to them. It means that fewer people are chasing after (and driving up the prices of) much better decks that I'm much fonder of!
Ah!! Boyer!! I've been out of action for a year or 2 and i missed you and your comments.
I just find it kind of sad that i listed few hundred unique decks on a selling platform, and i just keep getting asked about the same few decks. Some i feel are great like DB's Gatorbacks, or those from KWP. But more often than not, it is as what you said, those "boring" decks with probably much more greater emphasis on marketing. I just wished there was a better price grading for playing cards.
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