How are any of you judging how much money Dan & Dave have? The statements of their financial status reek of immaturity. You have no idea how much money they have. They are two guys trying to make a living like anyone else. Those of you who are not yet earning a living for yourselves should not even begin to comment on anyone else's financial status. I have heard they are nice guys, and I'm not the biggest fan of how they release or sell some of their decks (Tungstene), but they are doing what most of you would do in a heartbeat if given the opportunity... Earning a living selling playing cards? What a dream come true!!! They come off a little egocentric (Fulton especially), but that's just my opinion... I won't deny them that they are where they are due to a lot of hard work, a gimmicky twin brother magician/card conjurer thing, and maybe a little luck. I remember seeing a video where they're in their car talking about Jerry's Nuggets that they bought for a couple of dollars per deck and how they were just going to rape the card collecting community and make a fortune, which I didn't think showed them in the best light... I collect their decks because, at this point in playing card history, I feel that they are definitely making a dent and some of their decks are nice compared to just about anything else that anyone is doing, so I try and pick up at least one of each of their releases... The fact of the matter is however many of you think they are phoning it in right now, should really take a look at many of the decks being produced these days... A lot of Garbage - A lot... And those of you on your high design horse who think you've reinvented the wheel and that your decks are revolutionary - think again, because most of them are Garbage too, and not only are they not going to be remembered, but they will serve no purpose in future playing card collections for years to come (you know who you are)... Enjoy the cards, & if you're not crazy about them, don't buy them... Most companies reach a peak, be happy that you were there with Dan & Dave at their peak, but who knows, maybe the peak is yet to come? Anyhow... Keep enjoying your cards and I hope you all are able to secure the decks that you want... Peace... -J
Hey, I understand that not every deck they make is crap. I'm pretty fond of FCJ and the Vintage Plaids. But they're cranking out an insane number of decks in a short time (eight releases since Halloween, five of which were their designs), some of which do indeed seem as though they phoned it in. That's more releases than any three of the other "big design houses" (Ellusionist, Theory11, Blue Crown, David Blaine) released in the same time frame COMBINED.
The Chinatown deck has faces that are NEARLY IDENTICAL to the Vintage Plaids. Take any Vintage Plain card but the AoS, strip away the yellowish background, swap yellow for non-metallic gold, and presto, you have the face of a Chinatown card, right down to the shade of red used on the red pips. Smoke and Mirrors? Great handling, but it's been the exact same design except for new colors since version 4! A new color ISN'T a new version, it's just a new color. They used to remember that back when they released the first three Smoke and Mirrors decks. And the Vintage Plaid backs that I like? The back designs came straight out of the Bicycle archives, where they were known as the Arizona Plaid deck and the California Plaid deck. The least they could have done was call a spade a spade and give them the Bicycle brand name...
I personally don't care how much money they made, are making or will make. And I do work for a living - I'm at work now, at 2 in the morning, East Coast time. What I do care about is lazy work being pushed off as "version x" or a new design. I care about designs that are so completely cribbed from another deck, it's practically a form of plaigarism. I care about them pushing so much of this lazy work on the market so fast that small card designers are feeling squeezed. People will buy version 7 Smoke & Mirrors decks until they're coming out of their ears, even if it's only a color change to black/"carbon fiber" - but what happens to little guys like the Curator deck, AetherCards, Encarded, etc.?
If every single deck they released in the past year or two was wholly original, well-designed and well-made, I would be thrilled. But they aren't. So I'm not. Neither are a lot of people here. The same people who used to buy their stuff by the brick are now buying a few decks or none at all. Throwing load after load of crap at the wall and seeing what sticks isn't the apex of playing card design nor is it the crowning achievement of a playing card company. They're rushing back to Smoke and Mirrors because after all these post-S&Mv6 releases, still in stock weeks after they were released, people are starting to think they jumped the shark. The only exceptions would be the decks they released but DIDN'T design: Tungstene, Jerry's Nugget in red and blue and Ohio Arrcos in red and blue. And I'm not counting ANY of the stuff they're carrying from T11 or from USPC directly.
