Swarm Playing Cards now live on KS

[rjtomlinson1977]

If you guys get a chance take a look at the KS project page for the updated Swarm deck. Its not live yet but will be within a few days. WJ printing is wanting your feedback. They want to make sure the new Swarm will be well received before they stop using the current design.












There's still a few pledge tiers that need to be added.... and I'm debating if I should offer the AI files for the court cards as a add-on. That way if anyone wanted to modify them... they can.

[octave]

Hi, I like the back design, but whats the quality of the printer and how do they compare to the standard bee decks?

[shermjack]

Great job updating the deck! At 4 bucks a deck, I will definitely pledge for a few!

[jsantafe]

Design is great.

Don't forget shipping, in low prices it can be critical! With Aliexpress orders being free, it would be good to have it here (even if takes longer to deliver).

[rjtomlinson1977]

I'll be doing the fulfillment. I separated the US shipping too... That way people can see the actual retail price. Ideally I would like to get these in retail locations at some point.
Honestly I'm not sure why EPCC ships by sea... You only save a little. For example, 2000 decks by air is around $1400 while its just over $1000 going by boat. I personally rather pay a little extra to get them in 3 days instead of 30+ days.
We've been working hard on the handling. With Gettysburg they did ok but with my Bradford County deck they made adjustments and got the coating perfect. They fan and shuffle great. They're slippery but not as much as USPCC... But for me USPCC is a little too slippery. They use 310gsm German black core paper.

[volantangel]

Im still not convinced by the stinger back, that kind of borders you are showing requires very accurate registration. I still think the full bleed back looks better.

[rjtomlinson1977]

Im still not convinced by the stinger back, that kind of borders you are showing requires very accurate registration. I still think the full bleed back looks better.

I would respectfully disagree. I worked around printing presses long enough I have ink running through my veins. The outer edge fades to complete white allowing wiggle room on all sides for slight movement. This will allow the pattern to be complete. It may be a little more this way then that way but the pattern will all be there. If you ran this pattern off the edge.. you would clearly see some hexagons getting cut off where they shouldn't be. The main goal is to keep the pattern all there.
Centering is something they're working on too (along with the finish). With centering it could be as simple as the layout of the cards in the computer. If the template they use isn't 100% accurate you'll never fix the centering issue by adjusting the press.

[jerichoholic]

Looks great, when does it launch?

[rjtomlinson1977]

I'll be launching Monday at 4pm est time.

[vasta41]

I love the fade-to-white borders. Great job, RJ! Monday, 4 o'clock- I'll BEE there!

[badpete69]

Now live

[ecNate]

Will the Kickstarter be successful? Probably not. I've been striking out lately so I don't have my hopes up too high. That's why I was half temped to do it with USPCC. At least then I know backers would be more likely to back the project then. I don't want to get into details but lets say if you could sell 10,000 decks you can get them cheap... no matter who prints them. Most Kickstarter campaigns raise enough to print that many... but it defeats the purpose of catering to the collector market.
But with a staple deck I thought I might as well throw caution to the wind and try to fund a large quantity so I can offer a low price. If it fails... it fails. It won't be the first time and it won't be the last.
I'm already starting to move out of the high end collector market and into something that will probably be more successful for me. I'm already doing the second print run of my Bradford County deck. I never seen a deck sell so fast. We sold out in two weeks.

Stole this from deck design thread and moved here for greater relevance.

First I agree this is most likely not to be a success on KickStarter, but it is not because of lack of quality or artwork. More importantly, it is a HORRIBLE method to test the viability and interest in the new design. I hope the printing company understands that. KickStarter, especially when it comes to playing cards, is for unique items that you can't get in traditional outlets. That often means a niche design or theme. This is a standard deck, although a nice one, I can't justify paying $7 with shipping for a standard deck and only the most extreme collectors would. However, if anybody were to walk into a gas station, pharmacy or any retailer and be presented with these 2 options, clearly the vast majority would choose your new design. In fact, other than those that tend to the USPCC/Bicycle name if price were equal it would stand a good chance of beating out preference over others on packaging alone, especially if it is sold at a lower cost. A better way to test would be basic marketing study having a pool of people select their preference of one design over the other and a series of questions.



I should also point out that JR's similar experiment with Silver Arrows had a similar problem, but it was compounded by having a higher price per deck (although it was EPCC so justified). However, it was just way to0 high of a goal ($50k) and thus an insane amount of volume required for what really wasn't a unique theme deck and certainly not his best custom work IMHO.

Anyhow, I hope you continue your experimentation with greater quantities and lower cost printers and ultimately lower cost KickStarter tiers. I think it can work with the right custom artwork, especially as the printer continues to improve and the word gets out about it. Personally, I don't think they have reached the level of the big boys, but the quality is MPC+ quality and certainly would be worthy of our $7-9 shipped cost to US if it had compelling custom artwork. Eventually you'll find the sweet spot and perhaps can be the Target equivalent of custom playing card design - good design and adequate quality at a reasonable price.


EDIT - I did go ahead and back it at the single deck level, just to keep up with it and out of general support, but I may re-evaluate and certainly this is a one time exception for reasons already mentioned. I do see you actually have a long time to go still so perhaps you can still get the word out and be a success. I hope so.

[Magic_Orthodoxy]

Actually I seem to remember that MPC did a deck similar to this in both form and function and it funded on kickstarter just fine. A kickstarter project doesn't have to be niche in order to be successful. A lot of people out there sometimes just believe in a good idea.

[ecNate]

True, but lack of success on Kickstarter for a staple deck doesn't mean it won't work in general retail. Especially if the test is really about design A vs B. That was my point.

[rjtomlinson1977]

I'm hoping to get it funded and I fully expect to one day get this into retail stores. It may take time but we'll see. If WJ Printing has no intentions of printing this if the KS isn't successful... then I plan on changing the name and doing it with USPCC. I'll first offer it to them to see if they would want to update a lesser brand like Aviator. But that's a long shot. If I have to I'll work on getting pre-orders from mom and pop retail stores until I have enough to get a bulk order from USPCC. You can get 10,000 decks for less then $1.75 per deck from USPCC. By the time, I get my cut and the retailers get their cut I think we can still make it a competitively priced deck.

[4.of.Clubs]

Project cancel, no explanation though... My guess is it wasn't going to be funded.

"Unfortunately I had to take the project down. Thanks for all the support."

[rjtomlinson1977]

USPCC was going to shut it down. I was notified today. And yes, it wasn't going to get funded anyway but I took it down to avoid any legal issues. Even though I'm not sure how changing a design would infringe on their design. If anything, I was doing all involved a service for changing the design.

[ecNate]

Apparently USPCC got a new logo. Seriously, what are they thinking? You are going out of your way to help a company that is making a pseudo-clone of their deck and making it legit. Guess they would rather have this company from China keep copying them?

[sprouts1115]

Didn't USPCC steal that from Bill of EPCC. I see a trend...

[PrincessTrouble]

Spied on Facebook:

[jerichoholic]

He posted that these are from his own collection but that WJ may end up printing them.

[jsantafe]

Indeed (Rave spotted these):



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