Author (Read 9653 times)

xZEROx · « **on:** March 20, 2012, 10:28:22 PM »

Just another one of those clip art decks from merz listed on eBay today.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Bicycle-Tiger-Deck-Playing-Cards-Tiger-Skin-Back-Design-Black-White-Yellow-/200731296922?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebc84849a

Aaron · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2012, 10:30:04 PM »

This may be his worst one yet

Linguist_ · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2012, 10:42:37 PM »

Ah, Merz. The perfect example of how picking up every deck that is released is the worst decision a collector could make. $0.99 sounds about right, he's gone and butchered the standard bicycle! Just neet to get that shipping down to free shipping and it should be good to go.

Evan · « **Reply #3 on:** March 20, 2012, 10:46:54 PM »

First it was the Zebra deck and now this? It would be one thing if his decks looked good... but they look like crap!

xZEROx · « **Reply #4 on:** March 20, 2012, 11:04:20 PM »

Regardless, one of you have bid on it! >.<

NathanCanadas · « **Reply #5 on:** March 20, 2012, 11:23:56 PM »

Ugly piece of sh*t. I have to admit I actually thought the Trace Series wasn't bad, although it was extremely overpriced, but I would never, ever buy these for any more than 3$.

jriffel · « **Reply #6 on:** March 21, 2012, 12:31:58 AM »

Oh, come on. The jokers look cute. Stolen, but cute. The second tiger was from "Kung Fu Panda" if memory serves. The first one looks like a knock-off of Tigg-ger from Pooh. It would be a hoot to bid on if the shipping was a bit lower.
I think the images used are far enough away from the originals that he doesn't have to license them.

jmrock · « **Reply #7 on:** March 21, 2012, 01:19:12 AM »

Hahahaha!!!!! Once again... Fail... What is it? Do you think that he relies on newbie card collectors to find his stuff on eBay and say, "I've got to have that one." I must admit, before I knew any better I fell for a few Merz tricks... Thankfully I returned what came damaged due to poor packing and the rest of the decks that were just bogus... For Example... He was selling the It's a Boy and It's a Girl Decks... From what it looked like on the picture, It looked as if the deck was released by Bicycle and had the slogans printed on the actual deck... I received a light blue and a light pink deck with two DIFFERENT stickers than what he posted online... Yes two stickers that he slapped on the cellophane and called them the It's a Boy and It's a Girl edition... Classic Merz... He also sold me two decks that he listed as League Backs, but when they arrived, they were Pinochle Decks (Nowhere was that mentioned)... For lack of a using some bad words - What a character... If he was the last card supplier on earth, I'd call my collecting finished and find a new hobby (not joking)...

Aaron · « **Reply #8 on:** March 21, 2012, 01:22:49 AM »

It is bad that someone can consistantly make these horrible designs and still keep going

I remember when I was first starting to collect I saw the Zebra deck by Merz and really liked it, never bought it. Thank God!

Linguist_ · « **Reply #9 on:** March 21, 2012, 01:53:59 AM »

Quote from: jriffel on March 21, 2012, 12:31:58 AM

Oh, come on. The jokers look cute. Stolen, but cute. The second tiger was from "Kung Fu Panda" if memory serves. The first one looks like a knock-off of Tigg-ger from Pooh. It would be a hoot to bid on if the shipping was a bit lower.
I think the images used are far enough away from the originals that he doesn't have to license them.

A quick search for 'samurai tiger' shows up the image for the secon joker. However, it's from Shutterstock meaning that the image is royalty free; i.e. you can use it wherever you want without any copyright problems. That is, of course, permitting that he has a paid Shutterstock account. As you can see, the images have watermarks on them and you have to be registered to download the actual image.

I don't know where the first came from, but I would imagine most of his images come from royalty-free databases. I'm guessing the USPCC has a process of checking for copyright on cards as part of the normal pre-printing anyway.

ReaganM · « **Reply #10 on:** March 21, 2012, 02:15:32 AM »

Those are atrocious its a shame because the back isnt terrible... well if they made it orange without the black I even think itd look great. I havnt heard of this guy before but he has certainly lost any respect I could of had for him.

Edit: just realised he didnt actually make the deck lol

Don Boyer · « **Reply #11 on:** March 21, 2012, 02:33:49 AM »

Quote from: ReaganM on March 21, 2012, 02:15:32 AM

Those are atrocious its a shame because the back isnt terrible... well if they made it orange without the black I even think itd look great. I havnt heard of this guy before but he has certainly lost any respect I could of had for him.

Edit: just realised he didnt actually make the deck lol

I'm not going into a huge rant as I have in the past, but yes, Merz67 does indeed order these horrible decks up from USPC. The trail of deck turds gets longer and longer with time...

I don't condone the way he markets these things, but it's a caveat emptor kind of world out there.

And I have to admit: when you want some straight-up unique playing card products that aren't easy to find, he sometimes has them at a good price. He's often one of the cheaper retailers, though he doesn't carry a lot of the other limited-edition hyper-rare bits and bobs that the other sites do. (I guess he thought it would cut into business for his own "rare" decks.) I've heard bad stories from others who've ordered from him, but I haven't had any issues yet. As long as you know what you're buying, it's good to go.

Quote from: jmrock on March 21, 2012, 01:19:12 AM

Hahahaha!!!!! Once again... Fail... What is it? Do you think that he relies on newbie card collectors to find his stuff on eBay and say, "I've got to have that one." I must admit, before I knew any better I fell for a few Merz tricks... Thankfully I returned what came damaged due to poor packing and the rest of the decks that were just bogus... For Example... He was selling the It's a Boy and It's a Girl Decks... From what it looked like on the picture, It looked as if the deck was released by Bicycle and had the slogans printed on the actual deck... I received a light blue and a light pink deck with two DIFFERENT stickers than what he posted online... Yes two stickers that he slapped on the cellophane and called them the It's a Boy and It's a Girl edition... Classic Merz... He also sold me two decks that he listed as League Backs, but when they arrived, they were Pinochle Decks (Nowhere was that mentioned)... For lack of a using some bad words - What a character... If he was the last card supplier on earth, I'd call my collecting finished and find a new hobby (not joking)...

I've actually heard of these "It's a Boy" and "It's a Girl" decks before I knew Merz67 existed. Are you sure that wasn't USPC's design idea with slapping stickers on pink and light blue decks? As far as the Pinochle decks... Well, like I said, some have had bad experiences with him.

jmrock · « **Reply #12 on:** March 21, 2012, 03:22:02 AM »

@Don... No... Merz took the Pastel Bicycle Decks and placed stickers, ones that didn't even match the pic or each other... One was metallic pink and the other pastel blue and when I asked him how he could dare sell such a deck, he asked me to return them... He refunded my $ both for the scam decks and the damaged decks, because this guy never packs anything appropriately... With regard to $, I will say that he was honorable in refunding me what he should have... However, that does not excuse his business practices of trying to rip off any unknowing party that gets involved with him... For everyone with a refund, I'm sure there's someone with a complete series of Trace Decks, Zebra Decks, Tiger Decks, and Tie Dye Decks not understanding what they just bought...

Don Boyer · « **Reply #13 on:** March 21, 2012, 04:47:31 AM »

Quote from: jmrock on March 21, 2012, 03:22:02 AM

@Don... No... Merz took the Pastel Bicycle Decks and placed stickers, ones that didn't even match the pic or each other... One was metallic pink and the other pastel blue and when I asked him how he could dare sell such a deck, he asked me to return them... He refunded my $ both for the scam decks and the damaged decks, because this guy never packs anything appropriately... With regard to $, I will say that he was honorable in refunding me what he should have... However, that does not excuse his business practices of trying to rip off any unknowing party that gets involved with him... For everyone with a refund, I'm sure there's someone with a complete series of Trace Decks, Zebra Decks, Tiger Decks, and Tie Dye Decks not understanding what they just bought...

But that's the thing - you're a high-end and knowledgeable collector. Some people just want them for whatever personal reasons.

The "It's a Kid" decks - maybe some happy dad who doesn't smoke cigars decided it would be a fun way to celebrate and less expensive than a fine batch of hand-wrapped smokes. The Tiger deck - maybe someone's got a significant other who's insanely into tigers.

I can damn near guarantee you that few if any of those whacked-out decks sell at the initial asking price. The average card player would balk at any deck costing more than five bucks, and the average collector with a head on his shoulders knows better. It's the collectors who buy stuff blindly just because they're advertised as rare that get the short end of the stick, but it's no different that the fools who buy "genuine" foreign currency celebrating events in American history with a "14-carat gold-clad" coin on TV. They're idiots, always were, always will be - more cash than brains. In such cases, the market is downright Darwinian; the cash doesn't last forever, and the crap bought with it is barely worth the material cost of its manufacture, never mind the original sale price.

kc62002 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 21, 2012, 05:41:42 AM »

I can't imagine how much this guy has spent to put out all these different decks. Since USPCC has a minimum run requirement, is it possible to print several designs under one run of cards? For example he had a contract to have 5000 decks printed but it consisted of say 25 different deck designs. It just seems like printing plates would be costly in that scenario. Anyway, i'm sure there are people out there who are buying them for whatever reason. I, myself, can't seem to find a reason to buy any from him.

Don Boyer · « **Reply #15 on:** March 21, 2012, 06:43:26 AM »

Quote from: kc62002 on March 21, 2012, 05:41:42 AM

I can't imagine how much this guy has spent to put out all these different decks. Since USPCC has a minimum run requirement, is it possible to print several designs under one run of cards? For example he had a contract to have 5000 decks printed but it consisted of say 25 different deck designs. It just seems like printing plates would be costly in that scenario. Anyway, i'm sure there are people out there who are buying them for whatever reason. I, myself, can't seem to find a reason to buy any from him.

It's not impossible to get shorter runs from USPC, but most shorter runs are farmed out to third-party printers. One way or another, he's spending cash to get them made, but the typical "clip art" deck like this couldn't possibly cost a lot to make, really. It's why he likes to introduce his decks to the market at some fantastic multiple of what they cost to make - all he needs to sell is a handful of those to pay for the entire print run.

To my knowledge (which admittedly is limited), the only person who got to "switch" the deck in the middle of a print run was David Blaine, when making the blue, rainbow and red White Lions decks. He was permitted to supervise the printing to insure quality control and was permitted to swap out the blue ink for red in mid-run - hence the reason for the inconsistently-colored purple "rainbow" decks. It didn't involve any swapping out of printing plates, so the work required would have been much less - and I'm sure he paid a heavy price for even that privilege.

Merz much be making these decks in really short runs - just not in the Erlanger USPC plant.

CBJ · « **Reply #16 on:** March 21, 2012, 09:27:41 AM »

Man, I really didn't think his decks could get worse.

Merz, for the love of God... please stop

CBJ

Paul Carpenter · « **Reply #17 on:** March 21, 2012, 09:53:54 AM »

If this guy can succeed then there is something seriously broken in the card collector market and people need to get their heads put on straight. I wouldn't even purchase that to give to a toddler to rip to shreds. Unfathomably horrible.

I'm not generally prone to cussing, but holy f$#@.

Don Boyer · « **Reply #18 on:** March 21, 2012, 08:06:54 PM »

Who said he was a successful card designer? For all we know, his web-based retail operation is funding his playing cards.

We all know his decks are horrible. At this point I'm tired of making the point. It's like beating a dead horse's shattered skeleton, so long rotting in the sun that it's devoid of flesh. Ain't no point left in it.

Aaron · « **Reply #19 on:** March 21, 2012, 08:24:56 PM »

I can`t wait to see the Tiger V2 that will come out in 2 days with an inverted back and different jokers, then the Siberian Tiger with a white back

xZEROx · « **Reply #20 on:** March 22, 2012, 02:30:59 AM »

And now it's at $18.50..

digipunk · « **Reply #21 on:** March 22, 2012, 01:59:43 PM »

The jokers really make me smile

NathanCanadas · « **Reply #22 on:** March 22, 2012, 02:24:33 PM »

Almost 21$ now... How high do you think it will go? Also do you think this is a prototype or did he print a couple hundred?

xZEROx · « **Reply #23 on:** March 22, 2012, 02:39:21 PM »

Likely to go up to around $40, just like the others.
I don't think it's a prototype, he probably printed a small amount of them, just like the others. Couple hundred sounds like a good number to me.

NathanCanadas · « **Reply #24 on:** March 22, 2012, 02:42:48 PM »

Quote from: xZEROx on March 22, 2012, 02:39:21 PM

Likely to go up to around $40, just like the others.
I don't think it's a prototype, he probably printed a small amount of them, just like the others. Couple hundred sounds like a good number to me.

Doesn't USPCC not allow that from small producers?