Quote from: Leif on March 12, 2015, 04:03:42 AM

I like it. This last year or two I have been much more drawn to T11's than E's decks.

It might be more accurate to say you've been preferring T11 over Madison/McKinnon decks!

Quote from: Leif on October 01, 2014, 06:49:58 AM

Don, it's not just you. I agree with everything you say.

But from a business standpoint:
Limited sells, because collectors feel that they might be left behind if they don't buy, when there's a limited supply. Example: iPhone.
Bells and whistles sells because the more extra perceived value you can add to an item, the more it sells, and the more you can charge. Example: iPhone
Series sells, because collectors tend to want a complete set.

Fever items at a higher price works like this:
When you sell something at a higher price you need to sell fewer items to recoup the initial investment.
By charging a premium you create a perceived sense of extra value.
By charging a premium only the ones who easily can afford to buy, buy it, those are often the least prone to return stuff. 

If you try to sell many decks cheap, you get much more competition, those standard bikes for example, and there's always someone willing to sacrifice some profit, and sell theirs even cheaper.

From a customer standpoint.
Awesome design and bells and whistles, at a cheap price, and no limited stuff, yes, please.

As much as I enjoy using my iPhone (MOST of the time!), it's not a good example.  IPhones aren't in limited supply, at least not here - it's been a few years since they had total sellouts all over the place, especially on launch day.  But that doesn't really matter, as I get the general gist of what you're saying.

If you want to talk about limited supplies, look at the customer base.  There's only so many people that are willing to pay the kind of prices collectors pay for a brand new pack of cards - in the eyes of most people, it's just a stack of paper, barely more valuable than a newspaper.

Obviously, going the mass market Rider Backs route is a losing game - they're just barely this side of being commoditized.  But as a famous Buddhist once taught, why must we choose from extremes?  There's a sweet spot, a point where decks are looked at as premium merchandise, but are also less expensive and thus more desirable - more desirable than a pack of Rider Backs AND some uber-premium deck that goes for 20 or 25 bucks a pack and only a small number of people ever get the chance to own them.

The premium end stuff has a limited audience.  If there are companies capable of doing this, even without having to dip in the Kickstarter pool - and we all know which companies they are - then why aren't more people aiming for that sweet spot and turning a project here and a project there into an honest, ongoing business of their own.  I would love to see more people using Kickstarter merely as the launch pad it was meant to be, weaning themselves off of it and becoming businesspeople and employers rather than someone else's employee.

Quote from: Leif on September 29, 2014, 04:34:06 AM

I really want to love these, and I do, mostly. But there are some tiny, tiny issues I would like to ask my fellow collectors about:
1. The color of the number and the letters part of the Indices seems to be black on the red cards too.(and white on the black deck) Aren't they usually red on the red cards? It looks a little strange to me.
2. On the Verana deck the index pips seem to all be with the white little thingy, except for the Ace of Spades?
3.Those white thingies, some seems to be blurred, some seems to be sharp, some seems to be of a brownish color. Is my computer or my eyes fooling me?
4. On the Inverno deck, only one of the middle pips of the Ten of Spades have the extra line, but on the Verana deck, The Ten of Diamonds have it on both middle pips.
5. To be honest, I don't feel those white thingies in the pips at all. The more I look at the cards the more I think the white lines detract from the pure awesomeness of the courts and backs.

I'm afraid I might be obsessing with tiny details too much.

And I only have 38 hours to make up my mind, Arrrgh.

I'll take a stab at it.

1. Yes usually. Since the two decks go together I believe he's making an artistic point with the colors of the letters and numbers on the indices. Usually I'm pretty anal about indices, with these I kinda get it.
2. Looks like it, solid pip on the AoS with the flamboyant spade placed center of the card. Again, I think it's an artistic choice there.
3. They all look pretty sharp to me with a slight shadow effect. Yes, some of them have the golden color added to the pip, the different color may make blend a bit and make it appear blurry on your screen. Personally I think the golden color looks nice and tie in well with the summer theme for that deck.

I think it's the little things that can set a deck apart, and the little things that can ruin the appeal of a deck. Hard to know which it will do. For me, I've been enjoying the little things with these but I can certainly see how they could bring about a different reaction. I really hope he reconsiders those limited seals if it cracks $65,000. I don't like those kinds of seals much. Happier knowing I have one of a thousand than it being stuck to the deck with a specific number.

I've been in the same boat before, limited time to make a decision and not knowing which way to go. The beauty of KS is you'll be able to pick them up retail after the fulfillment so there's no real lose strategy if you decide you like them later.