How to not overpledge?

[OVSUB]

So many juicy decks, but I gotta purge lots of my pledges. How do you guys choose what projects to back and keep backed and what do you kick?

[akicer]

design a rule for yourself and follow it strictly.

For me the rules below works really good:

1. I like the design a lot, good designer, good price, 2 bricks
2. I like the design a lot, good designer, bad price , 1 brick
3. I like the design, newbie creator 1/2 - 1 brick depends on price
4. design is okay-ish, good designer, limited, 4-6 decks
5. design is okay-ish, newbie creator 0-4 decks depends on price
6. I don't like the design, good designer 0
7. I don't like the design, newbie creator 0


Also, if you find that there are a lot of juicy decks, there's an extra step for you - understand what you really like. There are not that many juicy decks for me at least

[OVSUB]

I see, I guess I'll start by yeeting the ones I only marginally like and downgrading the ones I like but aren't "must haves" for me. Thanks fam I'm gonna go construct rules for myself.

[akicer]

yea for me marginally like = 0 to 2 decks... More a 0 nowadays..

I think for me the turning point is when I get enough number of decks, lots of the "marginally like" decks became "need to go" decks.

Lots of the decks get downgraded with more decks coming. The key is the buy and hold on to those decks do not depreciate lol

[Eric Lee]

1) Buy only what you can really afford and must have.
Having a forex rate of USD 1 to 4.1 of my currency helps limit what I pledge. So big expensive ones like special collectors tucks, as much as I love them, I have to pass. Like Minty's Ascension decks and Gio's special LE tucks.

2) Best advise I ever got was buy what you love. I would now state it as 'know what you love and why you love what you love'.
As much as I like JR and Gio's decks, (They are in my big 5 established designers list) I didn't get JR's Flywheels and Verum Vidure; and Gio's Delirium decks because I didn't care for the designs.

Standard courts and JAB (joker, ace, backs)jobs won't do it for me anymore. The design's also gotta be clever like Parlour's and RiffleShuffle's organic decks.

Unless the tuck and back design really is amazing like Gio's Ravn decks, but even then he has modified the courts, or a marked deck for magicians like DMC Elites, Randy's Parisian.

3) Do you really need that many decks?
Space is a constraint for me what with 3 growing kids. So I really ask myself why do I need so many copies of that deck. Unless you're a magician, cardist who will use these cards or planning to resell them, then yeah, go for bricks. If not, ask yourself, do I really need 1 or half brick and what will I do with all the extras when I run out of storage space? Will you be able to sell the extras when the time comes?

4) What are the chances of me picking the decks at an online store during Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales or other sales?
If high and you know they aren't super limited, then wait for them to be released on retail at only a slightly higher price.

5) For Kickstarter, do you really need the deck in your life if it doesn't fund?
I may pledge for 1 deck just to support that project. I may addon other stuff if it really needs help. I only ever pledged an extra $5 to help get 1 KS project over the line. It just made it. I already added on what I wanted but didn't like the coin. So I just pledged $.

Wow, longer than I expected this to be. Anyway hope you find this helpful.

[Harvonsgard]

Great points from akicer and Eric made.

My 2 cents are similar. Only buy what you love. For me this rule is golden and I follow it without making compromises.

There are decks out there that intrigue me because the thought behind it is nice, the idea is funny or whatever but it lacks in execution or I like the back but the faces are meh or something else - gets scraped from the shopping list without remorse. I only buy decks that I'm 100% convinced of.
For example on akicer's list I personally make the cut after point 3. If something is okay-ish I can enjoy it from the distance by looking at it online. No need to waste money and room space on it.

For me, even with handling cards in gameplay and cardistry, there is no deck in the world that I need more than half a brick - absolute, ultimate max. Even from cardistry decks that I handle a lot and that I like a lot, I buy mostly 4 tops. 2 or 1 copy are the more common number in my collection. Bricks are a waste of space and money for me, no matter how hard creators want to chime you in with embossed, foiled and what not custom brick boxes (maybe gilded brick boxes - the box itself not the decks - will be the next step in the evolution? But only if you buy 2 non-gilded brick boxes first !?).
If a creator makes a deck that is only available by buying something that I don't like - get's scraped from the shopping list without remorse as well. Either you offer me the deck I love for a purchase or you don't need my money/support on that project.

Another thing that I weigh into my decisions is definetly customer service/reputation and how campaigns are handled and set-up. I don't cut you slack for that if the design is not to my favor but if I like e.g. two different decks from different creators equally and I have too budget, this will be the factors that drives me towards one over the other. Too many decks/versions in a campaign will most likely turn me off.

[theCapraAegagrus]

I don't really pledge on KS unless it's for something that I feel I "need". That's on account of all my other hobbies, though.

[justplaycards]

I don't really pledge on KS unless it's for something that I feel I "need".

I agree 100%. I think over time you naturally get a lot more fussy. Mainly because you develop your taste of what you like. When I first started collecting I seemed to like everything, but these days, very few decks make the cut. I also used to buy bricks just to get the box, these days it's rare that I pledge for more than two of anything.

I also take into consideration if the deck will easily be available retail later. If it will, chances are I will give it a miss. See how it turns out and if I still want it then.

[Adonael]

Oh that's easy, just don't have enough money lol. Unless I can say I love something about it I pass, just being nice or interesting isn't good enough. I like to think there's always the future where someday I'll have extra cash to backfill the stuff I didn't feel like I absolutely couldn't miss out on when it was released. Others are right, we all develop tastes over time and will always end up with decks a few years later we don't want, I sold 1/3 of my collection early last year of the decks I didn't love.