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NEW DECK DESIGN + GAFF DECK

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NEW DECK DESIGN + GAFF DECK
« on: August 02, 2012, 12:10:56 PM »
 

HiddenMirrors

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Hey Guys,
     I was thinking about working on a new deck design, but also include a new, 52 card gaff deck with it.I was wondering what you guys thought of this, and if this would even be a good idea to pursue??This is a lot of work, and I want to at least make sure a lot of people are interested before I even start. Tell me what you guys think!   :karrit:

Thanks
Juan G Perez

Hidden Mirrors Magic
« Last Edit: August 02, 2012, 12:11:11 PM by HiddenMirrors »
 

Re: NEW DECK DESIGN + GAFF DECK
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2012, 01:12:38 PM »
 

Don Boyer

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Well, the big question is, if you're planning to make a deck consisting of nothing but gaff cards, what deck pattern will you be making them in?  The reason I ask is that if you make it in the same design as your Hidden Mirrors deck, you will have a very hard time selling them.  They'd only be of interest to die-hard completist collectors and working magicians - and for magicians, it only makes sense to buy a gaff deck if they have MANY copies of the original deck.  Since that deck's sold out-ish, you'd be limiting your potential customer pool dramatically.


If you had some really original ideas, you should choose a deck design of something that's common - Bicycle, Tally-Ho, Bee, anything made DIRECTLY by and for USPC that's sold in a lot of places.  The alternative would be to make a deck continually available (like Ellusionist does for their Arcanes, Masters, Black Tigers, Ghosts, etc.) and then make gaffs for that when there's enough out in the wild.


An alternative to the whole gaff deck concept would be either:


1) Creating a "gaffed deck" where the deck has a single gaff to it, like a stripper, Svengali, marked deck, etc., or


2) Create just a small number of gaffs compatible with your deck, and sell them with your deck, like what David Blaine did.  He made a two-deck set of Split Spades Lions in red and blue with a small envelope holding ten or twelve gaff cards compatible with those two decks.  He later included the gaffs in his Variety Box, which contained some SS Lions in red and blue.  For a real bonus, you could, as a working magician, create a couple of unique gaffs solely for your own use in performance, allowing you to have a truly unique handful of tricks built around the gaffs you made for yourself - something that stands out in your act and makes it a one-of-a-kind signature of your shows as opposed to any other magician buying your cards and gaffs would have.

EDIT: I see you want to do it for a NEW deck design.  No matter how you slice it, you're looking at TWO deck runs - one for the deck, one for the gaffs.  This would be very difficult to do, since you'd want far fewer gaff decks than you would real ones, and because of the necessity to change plates, USPC would make it a second run and charge you as if you were making two entirely different decks.  If you want to make a small number of gaffs, however, you could instead go here:

http://809bicycle.com/index.php/custom-cards

and make any gaff cards you want, in a lot of 5,000 for $300 each card.  You can have custom backs and fronts, but you can't alter the Bicycle Ace of Spades or the Bicycle Joker - you can, however, completely replace them with your own unique designs.  It's the cheapest way I know of to get some gaffs made.  Let's say you created five designs and included two of them in each "gaff packet" you make - that would run you $1,500 for USPC-made gaff cards.  You will likely have a LOT of leftovers, unless you went "deeper" and made, say, four copies of each of five gaffs.  You'd have 1,250 gaff packets to go with whatever number of decks you were making.  Even at four decks per packet, you STILL might have leftovers - just not as many, and you can always sell them later, as long as enough of the deck the gaffs are based on are still circulating.

The math gets tricky any time you try making more than just a few gaffs.  A standard deck run of 56 cards per deck would give you up to two gaffs with jokers or up to four without.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2012, 01:29:04 PM by Don Boyer »
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