Hey everyone, this is Shane I'm the guy who created the project on Kickstarter. At first I was a little confused by the overwhelming negative statements on this board, and then I realized this is a forum for people who do this stuff professionally. Just as a quick response to the comments on here.
I'm not doing this in an attempt to make any significant profit. I obviously have to cover my costs, but the rewards and goals are based on the cost of having them made through a company. I received quotes from several different custom playing card manufacturers, and the cheapest I found was roughly $2,000 for a 500 deck run, which is too expensive to make it worthwhile, since the manufacturers would charge a tax and shipping fee on top of that. Also, kickstarter takes out 10%. The quote was around $2,800 for a 1000 deck run, or $2.80 per deck. That would be cheap enough on my part that I can give the backers on kickstarter a decent deal. I'm paying shipping out of my own pocket, so if the project does hit the goal, I would have to account for at least $2-$3 cost per person for shipping costs. For that reason, I said if we reach the goal of $3,000, I can do 1 deck for $10 (Taking into account shipping costs) or as many as 3 decks for the same cost, since if we raise $7,000 the cost of manufacturing them goes down significant. However I wanted to provide an incentive for pledging more, so I said if someone donates $100 AND we also raise the $7,000 needed to manufacture them at a cost of less than a dollar, I can sell them to the backers for only $2 per deck. I thought that would be a fair incentive where there's enough of a profit margin to make it worth my time, but it would be cheap enough that the backers would be getting a good deal. I don't necessarily expect to raise that much, but I figured that if we DID raise more, I'd like to give the backers a better deal, instead of trying to make a large profit off of each individual person.
Of course, I'm sure the people on this forum have more experience than I do in the subject. If anyone knows a place to get a good quality run for less than what I was quoted, please feel free to contact me. If there's a better option I'm completely willing to take down the project and re-evaluate my options. I've read a few articles and guides on how to make them myself, but I didn't see anything that seemed professional enough for my tastes. I'm a magician/poker player and have spent enough time with cards that I'd like to do a run sturdy enough to hold up to everyday wear. I have more experience handling cards, and not necessarily making them however, so I'm sure the average member of this forum would be a lot more knowledgeable than I in that regard.
In response to the comments of the decks being unattractive, I'm confused. Of course not everyone is into the meme/rage face subculture that has dominated websites such as reddit and stumbleupon, but the concept was not for mass appeal, it was for a group of people who are fans of and appreciate the inside jokes and comedy of rage comics and Reddit, which is the largest message board on the internet.
Again, I created this project because I figured there was a market for it. If anyone has suggestions for getting them produced cheaper, or for a different look, or anything at all, I'm completely open to constructive criticism. I don't take any negative comments personally, but hopefully I can get some sort of useful information from you guys, as I'm sure I could learn a lot from this place.
