it's funny because in this very thread you said "USPCC could easily shutter the entire Custom Department and not lose a wink of sleep over it as regards their bottom line. It's literally just a drop in the bucket for them. Maybe more like a drop in a large swimming pool..."
and honestly that's where my biggest problem is with you saying it. You're flip-flopping all over the place. You say it could be a game changer but also say that USPCC couldn't care less. You say it's rarer than other decks but have said that rarity means less when there's so many limited run decks coming out now. Also I was a apprehensive of Zenneth making a huge deal out of "all of the secrets" like it's actually a big deal. There's no consistency when you talk about this deck compared to other decks, and I feel like I'm being fed marketing on these past couple of pages.
And I'm well aware of what a game-changer it could be, considering I brought it up well before you did in this thread.
Yes, it's absolutely true that USPC wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over closing the Custom Department, since the income they derive from it is probably more like a minor rounding error on Jarden's books. But deck designers would lose a lot of sleep, for certain. Regardless of whether USPC could care less or not, deck designers still have to get their decks made - otherwise, it's just a bunch of pretty art sitting on a hard drive somewhere. The game changer isn't for USPC - it's for the designers, and for consumers looking for quality custom decks that cost less. Having solid competition might encourage USPC to take more of an interest in how their custom decks are handled, but then again, it sounds like they're making too much money on their main products to really care a lot about it.
Think about it - a typical casino blackjack table can go through a minimum of 8,760 decks of cards a year; a new eight-deck shoe for every shift. The number goes much higher when you factor in the occasional damaged card or other issues that can force them to replace a shoe earlier than planned. The actual number is probably closer to 12,000-15,000 decks. For one table. And a casino will have dozens if not hundreds of such tables... Assuming a hundred blackjack tables means a casino might use up 1.5 million decks in a single year! And that's just ONE casino. When you're talking about such large numbers, somebody's piddling 5,000-deck print run looks like less than a mosquito bite on an adult elephant.
I've heard a few horror stories about companies and individuals going to USPC for what on the surface was a simple press run but ended up with all kinds of errors. Sure, they'll generally make good on their own screw-ups, but wouldn't it be nicer to not have the screw-ups in the first place?
The secrets of this deck that Zenneth refers to are hidden features of the deck, features that magicians can take advantage of. Things like reveals, hidden marks, etc. This deck is packed with them. One of the reveals has to be among the most clever I've ever seen - I won't say what it is, but it's on the back of the box.
There's not an ounce of flip-flop to be seen anywhere, as stated by Twiscold. Trust me, sometimes the Kool-Aid is just plain ol', unadulterated Kool-Aid, so feel free to go ahead and drink some...
See, now, the problem with your statement is that you quoted my discussion about the value of rare cards when I was simply writing about the RARITY of rare cards, not the value. That kinda sucks the wind out of those sails, doesn't it? 3,888 of each color means that there's 3,888 of each color - you're lumping them together when they're really separate, much like Zen Kok's Gold Seal New Fan Backs or the Ornate decks. The fact that there are 11,664 in total does nothing to change the fact that only 3,888 of each color exist, just as the fact that 6,000 GSNFBs were made doesn't change that there's 5,000 black decks and 1,000 white ones. By your argument, the Gold Arcane deck's print run numbers should be the total of all runs for all three versions of the deck: gold, black and white. Same for the Artifice deck in red - there's now five different versions of that deck. But that's not how people consider a deck's rarity.
I wouldn't say so, I see what sr15 is saying. Because of the fact that all 3 of the decks were released at the same time, they are part of one "version". When decks with similar designs and print runs are released at the same time like that, they tend to accumulate their rarity and print run numbers into one lump sum. I'm assuming this was his thought process and so by that logic, he was correct to say that there were 11k (legends v1) decks printed, as he never said there were 11k of a specific color printed, like you implied with the arcane and artifice analogy. Deck versions and deck colors are 2 very different things.
11k IS quite a large print run compared to the 5,000's, 2.500's, and less that alot of modern decks are being printed at.
At USPC, if you're making a single deck in three colors, that's three different decks made in three different print runs, often with separate contracts. You might get a discount if all three used the same printing plates for the faces, but it's still handled as three print runs.
The Gold Seal New Fan Backs weren't two versions - they were two colors of the same deck, released pretty much together. The same is true of the Arcane deck except there's three colors. If you get down to brass tacks, Smoke and Mirrors versions 4 through 6 were nothing more than two colors, but they were released months apart from each other, so there's wiggle room.
For me, it all boils down to this: if I or any other consumer wanted to get a green deck of Legends, there are only 3,888 of that deck. If I wanted a blue one, same thing, and again for the red. Just like if I wanted a red Artifice, there's only 5,000 of those, or a version one blue Artifice, there's however many of those and nothing more.
