Its a great offer from/for CARC, as there are obviously many collectors VERY interested in this deck.

Glad to say that I'm not *that* intent in getting one (although admit that I did consider it for a minute or two...  )

I am not sure if I understand. Is it supposed every 808 club member will receive such a big package including those outside USA? For free?

That seems a bit hard to figure out.  There are multiple posts confirming that we are and are not going to get them.  I definitely haven't received anything, but it's sort of expected.

Has anyone outside of USA received a pack?  Anyone outside North America?

I actually quite like these, assuming the customization on the faces is decent/fitting.

However the KS pledge levels seem bizarre.  If one would like more than 3 decks you're stuck getting an uncut sheet... which makes the costs prohibitive.

Unfortunately its still got the $15,000 target.  Whilst the prices (per deck) have come down, they're going to need a significant number of extra pledges to get to it now.   Essentially they need the volume to make up for the losses with people not needing to pledge as much.

I for one will probably be pledging less, not more, as although I do like the design, I don't need more...

Yes, like the back design too.  Very minimalistic, but with some style.  Not convinced on the faces of the court cards - with small court images next to the pips. (Almost like triplicates from yesteryear decks). 

I would pledge except for the high costs per deck... and the target is $15,000 - which might be a big ask in today's custom deck climate.  As hawjinjian notes, the brick for $100, or even the $50/5 deck, options look more inviting, but limit the number of market of small pledges.

So the price issue....

Back on Sept 16th, 2011, Alex made this comment on a post at the Seasons FB page..

" Liran, they are a limited edition run due to high production costs. Evan, If you purchase through kickstarter they'll be $15 a (2 deck) set. If there are any left they will be sold at $20 retail. I appreciate the interest. Feel free to tell your friends about it."

Now.. 7 months have passed.  I'm sure there were expenses that came up that weren't planned for.  Additions to the deck to enhance it.

Maybe Alex should have held off giving out prices 7 months ago before the printing was done.  But look at what's changed since then...

The problem is that in this very topic (page 10) Alex posted {emphasis mine}

As far as the early supporter discount, after doing some number crunching we can only apply it to a certain number of decks related in bundles. All other items of a cart can have the 20% off, but to be perfectly honest, I really didn't expect these cards to cost this much and can't afford to sell them at $16 a pop. Other card printers out there can verify this especially with the embossing/foiling costs. They'll be kept at $19.95 a pair which I do think is reasonable.

So in the last month they've gone up from $20 each (with no early supporter code), to $25.  Sure there is 20% off but only for the first 150 customers.  As frostchew says, it's just a bit of blatant money grabbing for what we all know is going to sell well.

Like many others here, I was intending to buy up (reasonably) big.  Whilst the 6 set limitation per order did stem that a little, the $25 price makes me wonder whether I need more than 1 set.

We have to remember that this - despite being (in my opinion) the most beautiful design I've seen - it's only 56 bits of card in a cardboard box.

I'm guessing with some of the complaints (Don?  ) they wouldn't dare to 'find a stash in the warehouse'.  Like sinsandman, I suspect DOTM subscribers will likely receive them, and possibly some to be put in whenever the next varierty box appears.

I guess the problem they have - if they acknowledged one at all - is what to do about it.  The only other suggestion I'd have is to perhaps put a (say) 6 deck limit per order on the release for the first 15 minutes or something (and actually limit people/credit cards to one order during that period).  Would it work well? possibly not, and I'm sure people would be trying to scam it in any case.  The reservation idea probably wouldn't work that well either, as it would become a race to reserve a good amount rather than the race to get to the end of the checkout process - either way a whole pile of people miss out.

LordLupus: Yes, you are right - whatever they do people will complain. 

I guess it comes down to the issue that has been discussed plenty before - if resellers can buy a deck and sell at a good profit they will.  If - as in these limited D&D (and others) decks - it's almost a certainty, why wouldn't they try to buy as many as possible?  Of course in doing so they inflate the perception of rarity and so spirals the market.  As this happens many of us buy a few extra either 'just in case' or to sell/trade...

At the end it is a supply/demand issue.  What we are looking at is almost strictly a logistics issue - of how the market distributes a limited supply fairly.   Whilst demand is high - and supply is relatively, or seemingly, low there will be a mass rush.  The only real solution is to print more decks - but this is at best very risky.

Anyone else think it's funny how the decks sold out a half hour before the scheduled release? 

Ummm....... no.

Here I was just before 10am, ready to go (for 11am), but checking D&D's site a bit, when the post arrived - and the Manas, Blood Edition Blades and Pro-Cardistry decks caught my attention for a few minutes (Ok, around 40...), and then they're sold out... 

I think most of us understand the difficulties of shipping out the orders, and despite the slow rate, that is not the frustrating bit for myself and I'm sure others who pledged.

• On Jan 25, Adam posted on Kickstarter that he had the decks.
• On Feb 23, Adam posted an update on Kickstarter saying that he only had 300 pledges more to post.
• On Feb 28, Russell posted on UC that there were only 5% of orders left to ship (5% of 1172 = about 59). 
• A month later, on March 27, Adam posted in the same UC thread to e-mail him if we haven't received our decks

Throughout this thread it appears many of the backers received e-mails when their decks were posted. 

Yet, (in my case) I pledged for a brick, in the first 200 pledges, and have not received an e-mail advising of posting, nor of course the cards.  Adam doesn't bother responding to e-mails about it - or at least not to me in the last 8 days...

Whilst many had niggles over the delays in Brimstone posting, this significantly worse.  None of this is USPCCs fault - Adam received the cards about 2.5 months ago - and it some, possibly many, haven't received a thing other than empty promises.

All I can say, is that the delivery of the Americana decks better be as good as Russell is promising, because otherwise I don't think it will matter how good the designs are, CCC will receive very few KS pledges (and possibly sales) in the future.

The Blue Crown put the value on the customs declaration at a number that meant the package didn't get caught up in customs

I have found many sellers put on their cost on the packages - rather than the retail price they're selling it for. Of course for many new decks this is really in the $3-5 range.

I think this is actually the correct thing - that it is meant to be the person posting the package's (wholesale) cost. (Please correct me if I'm mistaken). In any case it definitely helps if you need to fit below a limit...
 

In 2007, WSOP and USPC introduced the PokerPeek card face.  It had small diagonal indices in all four corners, and in the center it had a face like a jumbo deck, and two large value indices, one high and left, the other upside down low and right.  They did not have a suit, and there were no indicators with the sixes and nines to indicate whether you were seeing them right-side up or upside-down.  It was as non-standard as they get - and it was so insanely unpopular with the players, they had to dig up some old, still-sealed decks from the '06 tournament and replace the '07 model.  Since then, the WSOP decks have been totally bog-standard Bicycle bridge faces with standard indices.

Off-topic...

There are a couple of errors in what you posted Don.  The "poker peek' did show the suit pips as well as the numbers, however many players got confused - especially with the 6's and 9's - when used at a distance face up on the table, and the suits were difficult to see.  The WSOP quickly got USPCC (aka KEM) to print new decks.

This is a scan of one of my WSOP 2007 Poker Peek decks;



And here is the same cards on the reprint;


You will notice several things;

• The new decks actually have standard size indices - rather than Jumbo in the originals.
• The decks are made by KEM, and use KEM faces, despite being branded Bicycle and use a variation of the rider back in part of the back design.
• The spelling of the commissioners name on the reprints was corrected (Jeffrey rather than Jeffery).

Here is a article from the time which explains it fairly clearly. As the Bicycle brand were major sponsors of the WSOP in that year (and 2008 I vaguely remember), they would be unlikely to use the 2006 decks as they were sourced from Copag 

Disclaimer: Having not seen them, I'm just guessing...


Are they still made in Spain? - in which case I guess that perhaps they're being wrapped by Fournier, rather than in the US?   Perhaps it's just what Fournier do?

I wonder if the site will crash?

With all the hype, it would appear very likely.

I presume they don't have the facilities of our friends at E - and we can all remember the farce of the Red Artifice. (Sometimes just in the nightmares )