Just to wade in on the international shipping thing (as someone who has many times complained about it here and elsewhere) - just don't back.
I hate paying high international fees because I feel like I am footing the bill for 'FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING' - am I actually footing the bill? No. There cost is taken from the deck, the amount of international customers is usually not enough to cover the cost of all the domestic ones. However, being the only set of customers to pay any shipping and handling leaves a sour taste.
I must say though, after about a year of whining about international shipping I've calmed down now because I realized that kickstarter wasn't what I thought it was. I assumed (through all the propaganda) that you 'pledged' on kickstarter to help a guy out, and as such you were 'rewarded' for your generosity. This is usually never the case anymore... If you think about vortex we got this forum, if you think about tendril the backers were enabled to see aurum information early and back on kickstarter for those, CCCC always do an amazing job as well, what I like about them is the actual special rewards, like the dice.
Those three companies I named in my opinion brought the community together for a common goal, to produce great decks. In return, those companies were loyal to their customers. Nowadays kickstarter acts as a presale, you order some decks 3 months in advance, most likely to add to your collection. In my opinion and judging from what alex posted earlier, I believe kickstarter for decks will end up being a resellers investment program. Let's face it as the seller you offload say 72 decks to 5 big resellers ~ $2500 made and you've five packages to ship out. As the buyer, you get the deck semi cheap (reseller price plus their profit), and you can combine shipping with all the other decks you want. Saving about a third. Who loses? Only those that can't get resellers on board.
It sucks not to be able to get involved with the kickstarter course, but from my experience you dont actually miss much, and those special exclusives are shit most times. Dice good, Chips nice (wont use, since I won't play with the deck), brick boxes lovely. Stickers fuck, crappy t-shirts piss off, a cap? No thank you. Kickstarter is dying for cards.
tl;dr
We should all stop bitching about international shipping, kickstarter sucks, I get decks from resellers and am happy about it 
The instances you mentioned about the KS projects acting as presales - well, there's only been one I can think of, and that was for the Aurum deck. He released perhaps a hundred decks for his fans who caught wind of it early enough to buy. I would question if Kickstarter would not allow such a project today, if they had analyzed it a little closer.
Kickstarter's primary mission is to launch someone's dream and perhaps make them successful enough to launch a company. The thing I don't like about Kickstarter is the number of companies that keep coming back to launch on Kickstarter over and over. It's like a baby that won't be weaned off of breast-feeding. There's been cases where someone brought a deck to KS and had the cash already needed to "launch" it - he just wanted to take advantage of the social aspect and get his name further out into the public. That's nice and all, but that's not really what Kickstarter was meant for, if you ask me.
International shipping - assuming that the person creating the project ran his numbers correctly before the launch, he factored in domestic shipping (in which I include "handling") in the cost of the deck. In theory, international buyers should only be paying the difference between a domestic shipment and an international one on top of the price, and a little extra handling for having to fill out a Customs form for each and every international shipment. If someone was too lazy to run the numbers and overcharges their international pledgers (or even the domestic ones), well, that's his foul-up, and if his project crashes and burns, so be it.
And YES, why must so many new deck projects start offering rewards as if they were running a flea market?!? Decks and uncut sheets are a natural, since they're why the project's in existence. T-shirts or caps of good quality, reasonably priced, might be nice, particularly if the art on them is good; only one or two designs, not a zillion. Dice are a natural fit, but how many dice does someone need or want? Art prints? How many walls do these people think I have? And once you start getting into the jewelry, is it really a deck project anymore? Or a tchotchke project?
For me, I don't reckon the shipping is too bad for this one. As I live in the UK, the average custom deck costs around about £8.50 give or take a pound - and I've pledged for 2 decks at $27, which is £8 a deck - that is pretty good for the UK. And also I get to have 2 of these beautiful decks, of which I absolutely adore the design.
See, that's the attitude one needs to take with this. "Will it cost me less than if I bought it at home?" If the answer is yes, go for it. If the answer is no, then you have to think a bit harder. On the one hand, it's costly; on the other hand, a lack of funding might kill a project and the cards will never make it to a reseller. So you need to decide if the "luxury tax" is worth getting the deck immediately or whether you want to take a chance on getting it later or not seeing it made. The decision becomes more flexible as the project's close draws nearer - you'll see if there will be enough backing; if they're a little short, maybe you pitch in because you really like the deck. Or not. The one caveat in there is for cases where a limited-run deck sells out on Kickstarter - then you're paying a collector's premium to get the deck at home, and maybe that extra "luxury tax" is the more cost-effective means by which to get the deck.
Gentlemen, this has been a wonderful tangent and I thank you all for coming. If you'd like to continue this, would you please move the discussion to Talk Park? This is a topic for the Divine deck. Thank you!
