***NEW*** The Grain Back Card Deck — Printed In The UK

[AshleyActon]

Hi there,

I am Ashley Acton and I am here today to show you my deck of cards I have been coming up with for the last few mouths with my friend Simon me and him have fell in love with this deck and wanted to find out what you all thought of this deck also this deck will be on kick-starter.

FEATURES:
- Custom Faces and Jokers
- Custom Tuck-Box
- Custom Back Design
- Printed In the UK
- Reveal in the joker of the 3 of Hearts
- Limited Edition Playing Cards
- 100 Will Be Printed
- Poker Size
- 56 Cards



Can't wait to hear your feed back.


 

[Nurul]

Hey Ashley. From what is shown, looks pretty decent so far. I'm assuming you'll be updating with images of the cards themselves soon?
What printing company will you be using?

Also, you should head off to the "introduce yourself" section and let the guys know a little bit more about you

All the best, look forward to more updates.

Nurul

[AshleyActon]

Hi Nurul

Thanks for giving me what you think about this deck and the printing company we are using is a secret and yes when the kick-starter is up you will see all the rest of the photos that we have but at this time we are just taking them and editing them for the project.

Ashley Acton

[Sovereign]

These look nice, but I would be less cagey about your printers - if someone says they are keeping something a secret most potential customers will ask "what don't they want me to know?" It may be that you are concerned about concealing your price in and hence your profit - IMO this is a false economy. (In fact, I'm willing to bet from looking at the die cut and fold on the box on your image that I know who it is you are using - if I'm right, make sure that you get the right sized box, because their standard box isn't a tight fit for a deck. If I'm wrong, sorry!)

Design wise it looks rustic and old-school - personally, given the 'heritage' design concept I must admit I don't get the "Since 2013". That's fine, not everything needs me to get it in order to exist. I do think that using a slashed zero, which is commonly associated with digital age, might be a mistake on something that otherwise screams heritage. But obviously it's your call.

That said, good luck with the deck and your KS project.

Phill

[AshleyActon]

Hi I believe we know the same company and also thanks for the advice nice site.

Ashley

[Sovereign]

 
I know that some collectors go nuts for USPCC but if you don't want to gamble your house on a deck launch and you don't want to move 2500 units then they aren't the most practical. There are other printers who do good work although they don't have the same big name. 100 is a manageable launch - if your cards look good, you have a non-terrible video and you are careful with your target you should hit it without too much stress.

Phill

[Don Boyer]

I'm in agreement with Sovereign on pretty much every point.

Yes, get rid of the slash in the zero.
(Though I do like the "Since 2013" part - every company had to start somewhere at some time.)

Yes, reveal the printer.  Honestly, how many playing card companies exist in the UK to start with?

Don't specifically limit yourself to 100 decks.  Mention that as your target, but have the flexibility to print more in the event your deck becomes a success.  It's a classy design that could have broader appeal than just card collectors.  And if deck runs are cheap enough, consider a second color of the same design - poker players love a matched set.

The labels on the front...  One says "Grain Deck", the other says "Grain Back Deck".  You're essentially saying the same thing twice.  Why?  Change "Grain Back Deck" to "Grain Back Design" and that will make more sense and eliminate the repetition.

Consider a deck seal as well - doesn't need to be custom, just needs to be enough to keep the deck closed.  It's tradition in the US, dating to when the government charged taxes on playing cards - the deck had to have a tax stamp sealing it shut before it could be sold.  If not a seal, use cellophane - one way or another, it will show a collector that the deck is in new, unused condition.

[volantangel]

Just saw your review of your own deck on youtube. Several important points to note:

1. Your court cards are standard faces, they contain your custom pips, but that does not make your face cards custom.

2. The printer registered the printing pretty badly, the backs are obviously off-center, hopefully it wont be the same as the produced decks.

Some not so important notes:

3. The tuck box looks really cheap with the shiny surface, but i got no way of confirming that. Hopefully im wrong.

4. The finish of the deck looks good enough. How good no one knows except you.

5. Getting little boys to say their opinions on the decks doesnt lend you much credibility. So its pretty pointless.

Good Luck with your campaign, with only 100 decks, you should sell out since its such a small number (unless its obscenely expensive, well it might just be.)

[AshleyActon]

Thanks for the comments first of the deck looks shinny due to the lights it handles great and it lasts even magician that are over 30 have fallen in love with this deck but thanks for the comments also.

[Don Boyer]

Just saw your review of your own deck on youtube.

Hey - why not share the link with the rest of the class? 

BTW: if a set of courts have "standard" faces but custom pips, it's still custom - it's just not FULLY custom.  Standard faces are completely standard, devoid of any unique design features other than perhaps a change in the color palette.

[Fred]

Here's the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzeWMhuoihQ

You seem like a nice lad and take opinions pretty nicely. Good on you for that. However, your review and 'testimonials' are very obviously greatly artificial. You oversell the deck on basically every single point (even though the handling does surprisingly seem quite good, except for the inability to faro). The thing that bothered me the most were the reviews by the kiddies at the end. Incredibly unprofessional, artificial, rehearsed and thus are actually detrimental instead of beneficial. I had a quick look at your other reviews and found that you pretty much say the exact same thing just to sell the deck for whatever company you're affiliated with. It doesn't help that you're also quite young and illiterate.

With that being said, a print run of only 100 decks will sell very easily on Kickstarter. Don't think you have to worry about that, especially because if it doesn't look like it will fund, the company you're affiliated with will most likely put in the rest of the money to make it fund. You honestly don't have to make any improvements or changes at all for that matter. Seems to me you have quite a following on youtube. Don't be stupid with pricing, hype up the release and i guarantee you will sell your print run of 100 decks. I doubt any informed, knowledgable person would buy your deck, but with that being said, i doubt we're the demographic you're targeting. There are a lot of 13 year olds nowadays, good luck buddy.

[AshleyActon]

Thanks man yes I understand I am not pro and I think all decks are great I chose the decks I love then I review them and it was a magic meet up and they wanted to be in so I let them but thanks I hope this deck goes well.

[Don Boyer]

Thanks man yes I understand I am not pro and I think all decks are great I chose the decks I love then I review them and it was a magic meet up and they wanted to be in so I let them but thanks I hope this deck goes well.

Finally got a look at the video.  It's not a review - it's a PREview.  You should clarify that.  Not to mention it's really bad form to be "reviewing" your own products.

The video is WAAAAY TOOOOOO LOOOOOOONG.  I barely got through the beginning before I surrendered.  You need to shorten it down, ideally to not more than two or three minutes.  If you can add title cards to your video, you can certainly edit it down - or reshoot.  The funny thing about the video is that you talk practically non-stop.  Pause.  Breathe.  You'll sound less like a desperate, teenaged used-card dealer.

[Anthony]

I'm thinking for a deck "Introduction/Preview" video, just stick to the deck itself, maybe some cardistry to demonstrate the handling and add some well chosen background music and build from there. As mentioned, way too long, I also have to agree, the "Testimonials" just kill it. I'll leave with this very old notion..."You can only make a first impression once"

Just another 2 cents. Good Luck with the project.

[AshleyActon]

CHECK OUT THE KICKSTARTER NOW  - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868828187/the-grain-back-card-deck-printed-in-the-uk

[Don Boyer]

CHECK OUT THE KICKSTARTER NOW  - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868828187/the-grain-back-card-deck-printed-in-the-uk

Just out of curiosity, why are you verbally listing the reward tiers in your video?  I would hope your backers can read by now...  All it does is make your video unnecessarily long.  I stopped watching again.

Sometimes I write really long posts here, acres of text in a single post.  There are some people who are really interested in what I'm saying and they read through the whole thing.  There's also quite a few who's eyes simply glaze over at anything longer than one or two paragraphs.  Keep your video S-H-O-R-T - long enough to get the really important features of your deck across, short enough that people won't zone out watching it.

I liken it to when I watch a deck review and the reviewer is actually opening the pack right before my eyes - a boring process that really could be edited out - and proceeds to read all of the text on all of the sides of the box.  Seriously?  Just SHOW me the sides in clear focus and I'm capable of reading them myself - they could even be still images with a quick voiceover of some OTHER features of the deck.  If a review for your typical custom deck runs more than one to two minutes long, someone's doing something wrong - at least as far as I'm concerned.

If we made television commercials the way you made your deck video, they'd be so long you'd be lucky to fit more than one in a single half-hour of television programming (in the US, that's about 22 minutes of show, 8 minutes of ads).

[BastianBJ]

I backed the project because I really like the back and the pips as well as the box itself. I am starting to worry a bit though.

There is no word about what company is going to print the cards, only that the cards will be printed in the UK. Only 99 will be printed, according to the kickstarter campaign. At Kickstarter they sell 17 x 2 decks and 65 x 1 deck. That's 99. But you can also pledge to get one signed card from the maker of the deck, 55 of these will be made. That would require another deck to be printed, unless the plan is to sign cards from another deck, which would be a disappointment.

Also, this morning at my Facebook account I got a friend request from a guy from Denmark, Simon Tornberg Hansen (https://www.facebook.com/simon.t.hansen.73?fref=ts). I accepted the request and now I found out, that he is the one, who designed the cards! At least he claims to be the one. Below I have translated from Danish to English the best I can. The pictures are from his own Facebook.

Pic 1: "I have made those xD"

Pic 2: "Now they are at kickstarter! Buy them now, they will be worth a lot in a few years since there only being printed 99 decks!"

[AshleyActon]

Hi there there is no need to be worried this deck was made up from both of us we both made the deck he was trying to promote it to his mates the reason we don't say the company is its not actually a company its a friend who has the machine that makes the decks and boxes. There is only 99 as you said 65x1 and 17x2 if you add that up that's 99 then the singed cards are one deck of the grain back we will sing on so that's why thanks for backing.

[magnacat]

There is only 99 as you said 65x1 and 17x2 if you add that up that's 99 then the singed cards are one deck of the grain back we will sing on so that's why thanks for backing.

this new concept really is magical! what type of song will be sung on these cards?! what kind of mood does this put the cards in? would you mind just singing on my whole order? i think i would surely pay extra for that!

[AshleyActon]

sorry about that **sign**

[Don Boyer]

There is only 99 as you said 65x1 and 17x2 if you add that up that's 99 then the singed cards are one deck of the grain back we will sing on so that's why thanks for backing.

this new concept really is magical! what type of song will be sung on these cards?! what kind of mood does this put the cards in? would you mind just singing on my whole order? i think i would surely pay extra for that!

I was going to go there but held back!  Cheeky bugger! 

sorry about that **sign**

You look like you're sighing and made another typo!

Back on the subject, I understand people's wariness in terms of not knowing who printed the deck.  People like decks that are made by companies with a proven track record of excellent work.  "Joe from down the block" is not likely to hold a candle to Piatnik, Fournier or USPC...  The cards themselves could be utterly awesome, but we've seen a few efforts from people using "off-brand" printers - rarely are the results encouraging.  It's something like one hit for every dozen-or-more misses.

[BastianBJ]

I had a chat with the Dane Simon about the cards yesterday. He gave me the permission to let all of you guys know, that the company who is going to print the cards, is Ivory Graphics.

I'll leave a link for their website here:
http://www.ivorygraphics.co.uk/

[ronyo_faukx]

I had a chat with the Dane Simon about the cards yesterday. He gave me the permission to let all of you guys know, that the company who is going to print the cards, is Ivory Graphics.

I'll leave a link for their website here:
http://www.ivorygraphics.co.uk/

Looking at the list of clients they indicate, they look pretty encouraging. There's even a listing for a 'Mind of Kennedy' and 'Help! My Supply Teacher Is Magic'. Though I am familiar with neither of these, I am sure that should they be considered decent/successful in the magic field, then they must see some merit in the company.

[Sovereign]

Mind of Kennedy is this guy: http://www.mindofkennedy.co.uk/ who is a bud / design client of mine (I built his site), and he uses his decks in his professional performance - they actually feature an optical illusion I designed. Help My Supply Teacher Is Magic is a TV magic show here in the UK.

I used Ivory for my Creative Solutions deck and we worked closely with them for the two DMC decks. I wouldn't have gone with them if the quality of print, finish and manufacture weren't excellent. If you have any doubt as to the quality of the finish, check out this video: http://youtu.be/ilAUgCgQNi8

[Lotrek]

I would grab one deck just out of curiosity for the printing quality but $25 just for 1 deck to ship outside UK? Come on, guys!