At one time, and not long ago, people came to get decks on Kickstarter because they were CHEAPER here than at retail. That's certainly not the case any longer, and begs the question for some, "Why buy it here when I can buy it at retail, use a coupon code, get a bunch of other decks to go with it and end up spending less?" The incentive creators make are the "Kickstarter only" versions, but that's only going to get you so far. At some point, people will want their decks at retail and the floor will fall out of the KS card market, and when those decks don't end up getting made, the retail market will suffer a similar though less severe fate. There's only a few creators here who could weather such an event, creators with either excellent quality work, their own major retail outlet or both.
At one time, people were buying everything that came out, largely because there wasn't a whole lot to choose from. Kickstarter arrived, and suddenly the entire market's blown up - whereas at one time four deck projects at once was a big deal, nowadays there's upwards of two dozen projects up and running at any given point. Buyers are getting pickier, however. Even the die hard Bicycle fanatics are asking themselves if they really do need this version or that version, especially when the uniqueness of the "versions" is only tuck-box deep. That, plus the fact that USPC's been letting the brand appear on a lot of really bad decks - it's really watered down the brand's value and continues to do so with each bad deck (and with each awesome one that skips the brand name game altogether).
It would be great if there were so many people coming into the hobby to insure the status quo goes on forever. People said the same things about comic books, sports memorabilia, real estate, etc. - look where they ended up. At some point, a critical mass is reached, people stop adding more cash to the market beyond a certain amount, and if the people making decks aren't keeping a finger on the pulse, they may end up simply tossing out more decks to end up as fuel on the fire.
I'm the last person to knock EPCC or LPCC - they do awesome work. But I know what the costs are, and a deck like this could go for so much less. One might argue that there'd be less money to be made at the lower price point. Assuming nothing else changes, yes, that would be correct. But if you were an artist seeking to make a buck in the playing card business, let's picture two scenarios.
Scenario #1: I order a 1,000-deck print run, sell about 900 of it and charge $18 a pack with shipping. The grand total I can take in would be not one cent more than $16,200. It leaves a pent-up consumer demand, making consumers unhappy about your product, because only a small number of people will buy it at retail - could be as few as 150 if everyone maxed out to the limit available to them, but let's assume the average is half of that, resulting in 300 customers. Anyone else wanting it has to pay aftermarket prices, which for a deck that rare could go double to quadruple the retail cost - dollars that you never get to see because it's the aftermarket, unless you get real sneaky and liquidate some portion of the decks you held back.
Scenario #2: ! order a 2,500-deck print run, selling 2,400 decks at $9 each with shipping. This grand total is higher, $21,600. Better still, more of it is profit because the larger print run cost less money per deck. My consumers are a bit happier because more of them were able to obtain the deck at a reasonable retail price, and the aftermarket price won't go to dizzying heights because there's more to go around (again, it doesn't matter what the aftermarket is other than in terms of keeping the deck affordable enough for most people - you don't see any of it unless you liquidate some portion of the held-back stock). You now would have enough decks in circulation that a quantity cap wouldn't necessarily be needed. The aftermarket price would be a slight premium, probably not more than one-and-a-half to two times the retail price until the deck starts drying up in the aftermarket and becomes harder to find, usually after several months have past.
Scenario #1 satisfies one type of person above all else: the aftermarket seller. One can argue that a larger print run will take longer to sell out, etc., but if your work is good enough, you'd sell out in either scenario and not in a great deal of time - quality is the key for this type of product and this type of market. The problem is that's the same exact type of person who's going to drive a stake into that market bubble. Why any artist would want to cater to the needs of the speculators is beyond me.
And for all interested, I'm saying now that I didn't have a particular deck or designer in mind when I made the scenarios - they're both completely hypothetical.
