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Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that the latest collaboration between Elephant Playing Cards and Anomaly Studios is now LIVE on Kickstarter - Medieval GOLD and ROYAL editions!


This deck is the color version of the hit Medieval Silver deck which was successfully funded on KS last year. But instead of releasing just the color version, we decided to bling it up with ALL the gold foil you could ever want...
- Gold foil edge gilding
- Gold foil to the outside of the tuck
- Gold foil to the inside of the tuck
- Gold foil to the card back
- Gold foil wax-style seal
... Seriously, this is a sweet deck...

I'll post up new images the closer we get

Mark the date in your calendar (7th August), because there will sweet earlybird specials for those who get in first! What's even better than super-shiny goodness is getting the same for cheaper

Look forward to seeing you there!

Ben

P.S.: that date again is August 7th. Don't miss it!

Hey, Ben. Who will be printing these bad boys?

I think embossing would benefit the heck out of this tuck. I like it as it is however think would embossing would help with that extra “pop”. Like the card back, Shield could do with some love and not entirely sure what that creature is however assume it is heraldry related to match the theme. Really nice work Ben looking forward to seeing these develop further!

Thedissident001 wrote: Shield could do with some love and not entirely sure what that creature is however assume it is heraldry related to match the theme.

Hippogryph or griffon perhaps?

Please be UPSCC or EPCC... These look good.

I was wondering where these had disappeared to after backing the first campaign. Agree on the call for embossing the tuck.

Thedissident001 wrote:I think embossing would benefit the heck out of this tuck. I like it as it is however think would embossing would help with that extra “pop”. Like the card back, Shield could do with some love and not entirely sure what that creature is however assume it is heraldry related to match the theme. Really nice work Ben looking forward to seeing these develop further!

The embossing is a great idea, though as the original black and white one didn't have embossing, I think we will limit the embossing to just the Royal edition (with all the other bells and whistles).

The creature is a Griffin - prevalent in all sorts of Medieval lore

rousselle wrote:Hey, Ben. Who will be printing these bad boys?

They will be printed by WJPC. I have been really impressed with their quality in the last few runs I have done with them, and suuuuper unimpressed with both USPC and EPCC so won't be using them. USPC for price + quality, and EPCC for inconsistent quality.

Any other thoughts? I am more than happy to make changes right up until the launching bell!

Fud wrote:They will be printed by WJPC. I have been really impressed with their quality in the last few runs I have done with them, and suuuuper unimpressed with both USPC and EPCC so won't be using them. USPC for price + quality, and EPCC for inconsistent quality.

WJPC? I might back if they use the same magic finish as the Bharata 2 cards. That's really only the WJPC deck that I've liked the way it handles. I was a bit disappointed in the handling and feel of the Elephant cards printed them, Ben, though I loved the artwork. I love griffins and foil, but artwork is not enough to sell me on a deck these days. Allan did nice write-up on WJPC decks in the Bharata 2 thread, if anyone wants a good read.

PrincessTrouble wrote:Allan did nice write-up on WJPC decks in the Bharata 2 thread, if anyone wants a good read.

Side Note: I won't back these if they're printed by WJPC. If the handling receives good reviews after shipping, then I'll get in on the aftermarket.

Hi, Ben! Allow me to suggest that you take a look into Cartamundi as your printer. They do have some excellent stock/finish combinations, their printing registration is top of the line, and their work with cold foil hits it right out of the park. Check out Montenzi's Wave:Ultra to see what they're capable of. (And, since Montenzi is active here, you might be able to get his thoughts on how working with them has been.) Lorenzo has also worked with Cartamundi to produce some excellent decks.

WJPC has produced some fine decks in the past, and I hear that they are easy to work with, but their finished product has remained inconsistent, and I'm sad to say that the two Elephant decks that I opened both had a finish that was very disappointing to me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

TwoPiece wrote:

PrincessTrouble wrote:Allan did nice write-up on WJPC decks in the Bharata 2 thread, if anyone wants a good read.

Nope, Allan. Talk to his parents, they misspelled his name.

Fud wrote:They will be printed by WJPC. I have been really impressed with their quality in the last few runs I have done with them

This is the part that concerns me. If you were impressed with the Elephants, then either they produced very inconsistent decks or we have significantly different expectations; the latter being totally cool - I can just sit this campaign out.

rousselle wrote:Hi, Ben! Allow me to suggest that you take a look into Cartamundi as your printer. They do have some excellent stock/finish combinations, their printing registration is top of the line, and their work with cold foil hits it right out of the park. Check out Montenzi's Wave:Ultra to see what they're capable of. (And, since Montenzi is active here, you might be able to get his thoughts on how working with them has been.) Lorenzo has also worked with Cartamundi to produce some excellent decks.

WJPC has produced some fine decks in the past, and I hear that they are easy to work with, but their finished product has remained inconsistent, and I'm sad to say that the two Elephant decks that I opened both had a finish that was very disappointing to me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

That's a really good idea. I think it's a bit late in the piece to be switching printers now, but I will contact them to discuss my next project seeing as how there is quite a lot of heat coming on WJPC. I value all the opinions a lot here - you guys know cards inside and out, but the protos I recieved from WJPC for my decks have always been pretty good.

PrincessTrouble wrote:

Fud wrote:They will be printed by WJPC. I have been really impressed with their quality in the last few runs I have done with them

This is the part that concerns me. If you were impressed with the Elephants, then either they produced very inconsistent decks or we have significantly different expectations; the latter being totally cool - I can just sit this campaign out.

It could be a consistency thing. The decks I have handled from my print runs have always been good, I might need to pick some up on the secondary market and see how they compare.

Ben

Hi Everyone,

Just a heads up that this project will be launching on Kickstarter tomorrow morning:

6:00 AM PDT
9:00 AM EDT
1:00 PM UTC

Earlybird rewards will be available for the first 24 hours, so make sure to get in FAST!

I look forward to seeing you all there

Ben

Fud wrote:Hi Everyone,

Just a heads up that this project will be launching on Kickstarter tomorrow morning:

6:00 AM PDT
9:00 AM EDT
1:00 PM UTC

Earlybird rewards will be available for the first 24 hours, so make sure to get in FAST!

I look forward to seeing you all there

Ben

Is a printer upgrade a stretch goal? This is key information for pledging.

vasta41 wrote:Is a printer upgrade a stretch goal? This is key information for pledging.

I was planning on making it one of the later stretch goals as everything has already been organised with WJPC.

Ben

We are now LIVE!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58 ... ject_build" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fud wrote:

vasta41 wrote:Is a printer upgrade a stretch goal? This is key information for pledging.

I was planning on making it one of the later stretch goals as everything has already been organised with WJPC.

Ben

Well I will back it for now to try and help get to that goal but will unfortunately have to drop if it's not reached. Good luck!!

vasta41 wrote: Well I will back it for now to try and help get to that goal but will unfortunately have to drop if it's not reached. Good luck!!

That's exactly what I'm planning to do!

Updated OP.

vasta41 wrote:Well I will back it for now to try and help get to that goal but will unfortunately have to drop if it's not reached. Good luck!!

Thanks, I appreciate the early support, and I totally understand your thoughts here. If the quality is not up to your standard, I'm not going to begrudge a dropped pledge

I do hope we get to the larger stretch so I can go with a different printer, and I will be talking to Cartamundi for future projects - thanks for the tip.

Ben

Fud wrote:

vasta41 wrote:Well I will back it for now to try and help get to that goal but will unfortunately have to drop if it's not reached. Good luck!!

Thanks, I appreciate the early support, and I totally understand your thoughts here. If the quality is not up to your standard, I'm not going to begrudge a dropped pledge

I do hope we get to the larger stretch so I can go with a different printer, and I will be talking to Cartamundi for future projects - thanks for the tip.

Ben

Cartamundi still isn't the best but it's better than WJPC. I personally think you'd be doing this beautifully designed deck a disservice by printing it with a "lesser" printing co. But then again, the age old question arises: Is it better to print a deck with a sub-par printing co. than to not print it at all? I always vote to print so I'm holding out hope that this project will fund and reach the stretch goal.

just to point out some Chinese designers use WJPC to print their decks and selling their decks for $3 each. Just to give an idea how cheap WJPC is. Why not creators just admit they choose WJPC because they want to make more money?

Aside from all the comments regarding printing companies, I really love the design of these decks, I hope there's eventually some better quality printer that worth the design

akicer wrote:Why not creators just admit they choose WJPC because they want to make more money?

I think another reason creates might choose a lesser printer is to keep the funding goal low in hopes that the deck would fund. While Asad didn't have that problem with MINT #2, I don't think this deck will raise half a million dollars. But some creators don't even make a printer upgrade a stretch goal so at least that's an option here! I personally don't think it's a money grab this time around.

EDIT: since the deck looks like it will fund (85% in less than 1 day- great job!) it would be nice to see the project page reflect the printer upgrade option. I see the 20,000 stretch goal is TBA- could that be it? If so it might help to mention it..

vasta41 wrote:

akicer wrote:Why not creators just admit they choose WJPC because they want to make more money?

I think another reason creates might choose a lesser printer is to keep the funding goal low in hopes that the deck would fund. While Asad didn't have that problem with MINT #2, I don't think this deck will raise half a million dollars. But some creators don't even make a printer upgrade a stretch goal so at least that's an option here! I personally don't think it's a money grab this time around.

EDIT: since the deck looks like it will fund (85% in less than 1 day- great job!) it would be nice to see the project page reflect the printer upgrade option. I see the 20,000 stretch goal is TBA- could that be it? If so it might help to mention it..

I'm not thinking this deck is money grabbing either, the price are reasonable - 12 for SE and 30 for a gilded LE.. I'm also referring to the Kalevala deck which I love the design but a more limited deck (a better looking one IMO) with higher price and with a shitty printer is something I found unacceptable..

Feel like now we are in a dilemma that if we are looking for something more limited, we need to accept worse quality

akicer wrote:Feel like now we are in a dilemma that if we are looking for something more limited, we need to accept worse quality

I hear ya but I personally could give two poops about "limited"- I just want to see this deck printed by a better co.

akicer wrote:

vasta41 wrote:

akicer wrote:Why not creators just admit they choose WJPC because they want to make more money?

I'm not thinking this deck is money grabbing either, the price are reasonable - 12 for SE and 30 for a gilded LE.. I'm also referring to the Kalevala deck which I love the design but a more limited deck (a better looking one IMO) with higher price and with a shitty printer is something I found unacceptable...

I appreciate that people don't think that this is just a money grab. Because if it was, I am a pretty bad accountant:
- Say it's a 2000 deck print run - ~$2/deck
- Shipping to the States - ~$0.5/deck
- Fulfillment - ~$3-4/deck
- KS/Stripe fees - ~$0.5-1/deck.
- Total profit: ~$2.5/deck which has to include all promotion, imagery, post-production distribution, etc, PLUS cover all the unsold decks.

Say KS pre-orders 500 decks, that leaves 1500 unsold, for which the $2.5 profit/deck sold ($1,250) has to cover everything - i.e.: the project will net around a total LOSS. Hardly an effective money grab.

Not many people are getting rich off Kickstarting playing cards - most of us do it for the love.

WJPC has been extremely easy to work with and their quality (at least on the samples provided to me) was pretty good. Their prices are a bit lower than some companies, a decent amount lower than other companies (LPCC, EPCC) and a huge amount lower than other (USPCC) - all that to say that it allows small companies like myself to print small run decks at a reasonable price (not $15/deck but $10/deck). I will price my next project with a different printer to see how that goes, but for this project, I have confidence that WJPC will do a good job.

It is really about the math - I do love the designs, and I want to see them funded, but I can't justify asking people to shell out $15/deck when I can print the same design at a slightly lower quality for $10/deck.

You funded the decks in 2 days- have some more faith in yourself! These cards deserve to be printed by a better co. What about a stretch goal for a better co.? You've made no further mention of that so is it out the window? If so I would hate to have to drop my pledge.

It is really about the math - I do love the designs, and I want to see them funded, but I can't justify asking people to shell out $15/deck when I can print the same design at a slightly lower quality for $10/deck.

Man I'm actually willing to pay $15 for this design if printing with a higher quality lol