Hey Don, Better late then never... I've been busy.
I understand its not practical for everyone...
Those of us that are buying this deck are for the most part more concerned about comparing the quality to USPCC. This choice has as much to do with the producers profit margin though. Yes, the decks are cheaper to make for producers but those of us that are purchasing the decks are not getting the decks any less then we would for other custom USPCC decks. How does Legends being made cheaper benefit the customer using the decks? The USPCC is an American Company and therefor I know they adhere to U.S. labor laws. Do we really know how or who this Taiwan Playing Card Company is using for these decks to be made? There are thousands of American Companies that use cheap labor country's to manufacture goods. While I am enjoying the Legends decks very much, I'm taking all this hype about quality with a grain of salt. I know what I'm paying for when I purchase USPCC decks.
Don, Over time I've learned to read between the lines of some of your posts. I know you have an intellectual interest in the success of a "friends company". I'm just wondering if your indulgent support of Legends Playing Cards being made cheaper has anything to do with a future project you know of? Otherwise, why would YOU "Don Boyer" care that they are being made cheaper?
Sorry I missed this reply - I was rather excited about figuring out the deck's markings.
Zenneth summed everything up pretty well, really. The deck is cheaper to make than at USPC, but a US-made deck doesn't have Customs/import taxes to be accounted for in the price unless it's being sold elsewhere in the world. So in the end, the deck is, like he said, just somewhat cheaper rather than drastically so. And let's not forget the amazingly intricate work that went into making this a real magician's deck - the marking system is brilliant and yet so simple to read, and it's just one of many such features in a feature-packed deck. How often do you find all these features in a deck at that price? A quality marked deck alone can run $10-20, or more in some cases.
Regarding the printer, the only things about the printer that I know are it's located in Taiwan and it's an industry secret. But I would doubt that this Taiwanese company is that radically different in terms of their business practices and treatment of its employees than a good percentage of American firms. I know that at least some of the people involved with the Legends deck got a look at the operation in person - if it didn't pass the smell test, I'm sure they wouldn't be using that printer, even if the decks were "Jerry's" good. I can't get into the details too much, but a LOT of work performed by some big names in the business over several months went into finding the right printer for this project, and it's expected to become an ongoing concern.
As far as my interests - I do associate with a handful of people who are involved with playing card design, and not just from one single company. I've heard some of the background details of how things went pear-shaped and sideways on a USPC contract job. The company does, in the end, eventually make good on their mistakes, but some of the mistakes are so bone-headedly simple that they shouldn't have occured in the first place, never mind so frequently. Meanwhile, weeks and even months pass by and their product isn't up to spec yet. Sometimes delays like that cost money, as what happened to the Bohemia deck, a project I consulted on; they went through a total of three production runs before they finally got everything right with the tuck boxes, and by that time postal rates increased and they had to shell out more of their earnings from the KS project to cover those expenses, cutting into their profits, since they certainly weren't going to track down their customers and ask for more postage for something they've already paid for. They also had to decline an offer to have the deck appear in the New York Times Holiday Gift Guide 2012 because on the USPC side of the deal the project went from being ahead of schedule to bumped back - and that was BEFORE all the mistakes.
To sum the previous paragraph up in a single sentence, these people are friends and business associates and the mistakes they've had to endure dealing with USPC were insanely easy to prevent, but they weren't - why should they go through all that hassle when someone else is willing to do competent, quality work for less, even after accounting for importation? I like USPC products as much as the next guy, but I also acknowledge that they're not the only game in town for people with a design and a dream. I have no profits to make and no projects in the works that affect this opinion in any way.
